Apple removing apps that share location data to third party apps

Apple is taking a step further in securing user privacy as it has started taking down app which were not following Apple’s guidelines and sharing location data to third party apps without the consent of the user. This was reported by 9to5Mac.

These apps were breaching the section 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 of the App Store guidelines which pertains to transmitting user location data and user awareness of data collection. To get their apps submitted again the developers must remove any part of the code that relates to violation of the guidelines.

This takedowns might be related to the General Data Protection Regulation, which will come into effect on 25th of May in Europe. The law states that the technology companies will have to explicitly obtain user’s consent while collecting their personal data.

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Apple has been contacting the affected developers and asking them to fix their code and their app will be relisted on the App Store.

Still, it is not clear how many apps have been taken down by the Apple.

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