The App Store receives a new view for “App data protection”, which should ensure more transparency: The information should give an overview of which data an app is interested in even before the download. After the installation, the usual option remains of not granting certain releases to the apps at all or only to a limited extent – for example access to the location.

Apple divides the data protection information into the three areas “data that is used to track your person” as well as data that is directly linked to the user and “not linked”. The group understands “tracking” to mean the creation of user profiles for advertising purposes, in which the data collected in an app is merged with data from other apps or from websites and offline offers.

Developers must list data accesses Developers and app providers must transmit the information to Apple themselves, this is done as part of the app approval and has recently become mandatory when submitting an update – as well as for new apps. A change to the software or the adaptation of the business model is not necessary, according to Apple.

The iPhone group sees the provider here as an obligation to provide truthful information and keep them up to date. The information on app data protection can be found with the latest updates in all of the manufacturer’s operating systems – from iOS and iPadOS 14. 3, macOS 11. 1, watchOS 7.2 and tvOS 14. 3.

The requirement also applies to Apple’s in-house apps, as the company emphasized, so they also bear the data protection label. For pre-installed apps that are not available in the App Store, such as messages (iMessage), users can find data protection information in support documents.

Criticism of Data protection labels With WhatsApp, a first large app provider has criticized the data protection labels in advance: Messenger not only sees itself at a disadvantage compared to the pre-installed iMessage service, it holds up the label is also misleading, it does not reflect data protection measures correctly. For its own app, the Facebook subsidiary explains the recorded information again individually. Apple emphasized that the current implementation is a starting point that they want to develop further based on feedback from users and developers.

(lbe)