I am making a kids app on iOS. When I released it, I had a problem with advertising because of the IDFA fence, and I had to remove it from the application. I also use Firebase / analytics. Will I have the same problems as with advertising through a data collection, or can firebase / analytics be used in children's applications?
As per the apple new guidelines for Kids category, you are allowed to use third-party analytics with limited permissions in kid's application.
In limited cases, third-party analytics may be permitted provided that the services do not collect or transmit the IDFA or any identifiable information about children (such as name, date of birth, email address), their location, or their devices.
Yes, you can customize your app requirements following Apple's guidelines more strictly.
Go through this in detail - https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#kids-category
Related
App Store guidelines state,
Apps in the Kids Category should not include third-party analytics or
third-party advertising.
Can we use other Firebase features like authentication, database excluding Firebase analytics?
Firebase Authentication and Firebase database offerings are not considered analytics products that track user behavior or provide advertising.
Formally, you should consult a lawyer to know for sure if your use of Firebase is considered lawful for the purpose of App Store guidelines. I am not a lawyer, but personally, I do not see a problem with it.
We are creating an iOS SDK which will be used by multiple apps, we want to capture users with their unique device id. So if a user is using multiple apps on his device where our SDK is used we want to track that.
Can we use IDFA for that instead of creating a new uuid in each partner app? Also, we are not serving any adds or planning to serve in the near future.
No, that is not a valid use of the IDFA. This is covered in your Developer Program License Agreement:
3.3.12 You and Your Applications (and any third party with whom You have contracted to serve advertising) may use the Advertising Identifier, and any information obtained through the use of the Advertising Identifier, only for the purpose of serving advertising.
...
In addition, You may request to use the Ad Network APIs to track application advertising conversion events. If You are granted permission to use the Ad Network APIs, You agree not to use such APIs, or any information obtained through the use of the Ad Network APIs, for any purpose other than verifying ad validation information as part of an advertising conversion event.
If you were to use the IDFA then there would be a risk of rejection for any apps using your SDK.
I'm working on a free app that has been live for 4 years. It has no ads or purchases of any kind. Just a free app.
There is no advertising of any kind, so we have always registered that we do not use IDFA when distributing on AppStore.
We have recently implemented Google Analytics for Firebase, and during our Beta we noticed that Analytics reports the gender of our users. How?
Based on this Firebase-reference it seems that Firebase uses IDFA.
It states that When the Device Advertising ID is not present, Analytics cannot derive demographics and interests information. This identifier shouldn't be available for any of our users, since we literally don't have anything resembling an ad-implementation.
Obviously, I have no idea what IDFA is, and don't understand why this is happening. I am wondering - should we now start to select "Yes - we use IDFA" when distributing? Or can we disable Analytics's use of IDFA? What impact will it have?
I am developing app in which i have added Google analytics. I have enabled IDFA to get information related to user's gender/age.
At the time of App submission there are options to select -
Does this app use the Advertising Identifier(IDFA)?
But options for that:
Serve advertising within the app
Attribute this app installation to a previously serve advertisement
Attribute an action taken within this app to a previously served advertisement
I am not sure where my app belongs to.
I am not serving any ads in my app. I have added this just to get user's gender/age information.
Can anyone please give me advice on this?
Thanks in advance.
As per Apple support Team -
Section 3.3.12 of the Program License Agreement states that usage of the Advertising Identifier is limited only for advertising purposes.
"You and Your Applications (and any third party with whom you have contracted to serve advertising) may use the Advertising Identifier, and any information obtained through the use of the Advertising Identifier, only for the purpose of serving advertising."
In Short, I can not enable IDFA to collect user's information.
I have an app that I did as a proof of concept and put on the app store just to gain experience going through the process but it turns out, it gets quite a few downloads, probably 30 a week. No Angry Birds but the app is very specific on the data it provides. It's a free app and what I would like to do now is gather some data on the users - how often they use it, where they are, what information they are searching and saving. I have no intention of touching personal data but I'd like to be able to aggregate what all the users are doing and see if there's any value in that.
Is this permitted in an iOS app? I see reports where apps are gathering more data than that (like Path pulling all your contacts) and I would think what I am looking to do is pretty standard.
Any advice is appreciated.
Check the App Store approval guidelines. That is the best resource you have.
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html
A few excerpts that may be relevant to you:
Location
4.1 Apps that do not notify and obtain user consent before collecting, transmitting, or using location data will be rejected
4.2 Apps that use location-based APIs for automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other devices will be rejected
4.3 Apps that use location-based APIs for dispatch, fleet management, or emergency services will be rejected
4.4 Location data can only be used when directly relevant to the features and services provided by the App to the user or to support
approved advertising uses
Privacy
17.1 Apps cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user's prior permission and providing the user with access to
information about how and where the data will be used
17.2 Apps that require users to share personal information, such as email address and date of birth, in order to function will be rejected
17.3 Apps that target minors for data collection will be rejected
Independent of what the guideline says, you should be mindful of your users privacy. As long as you don't pin the information you collect to individual users, I guess you might be fine.
Regarding location data, the guideline states you can't collect for analytical purposes if it is not relevant to the app's usage. However, it is referring to the gps data. You can obtain location for analytical purposes through network access information.