Apple is taking more steps to protect its users’ data. In its latest App Store Guidelines, Apple forbids developers from creating databases from contacts, photos, or other apps/APIs that can access user information.
“Apps should not attempt to surreptitiously build a user profile based on collected data and may not attempt, facilitate, or encourage others to identify anonymous users or reconstruct user profiles based on data collected from Apple-provided APIs,” said Apple in its guidelines.
The new rules specifically call out use of the contacts and photos apps, which developers are not allowed to cull to build a contact database for their own or commercial purposes. Developers may also not contact people using the information collected from the contacts/photos apps.
Further, any data pulled from Apple’s various APIs (HomeKit, HealthKit, MovementDisorder, Camera, Photo, or Consumer Health Records) may not be used for marketing or advertising purposes.
Apple made a number of changes to its App Store guidelines earlier this month as developers build apps for iOS 12, watchOS 5, and macOS 10.14.
