Starting this autumn (2023), Apple introduces new measures to protect the profile of iPhone and Mac users. The company will ask the application developers more information about the purpose for which the data points can be collected through which a user profile can be created. "Fingerprinting“.
Applicators for iPhone or Mac apps use API (Application Programming Interface) made available by Apple to create applications. Through these API, developers can collect data about the user who installed the app. Exemplary iPhone, IP address, resolution used, hours at which the application, battery status, plus many other data is accessed. Based on this data developers can make the profile of a user for purposes that are not accepted by Apple policies.
This type of fingerprinting is often used in online advertising, user behavior analysis and fraud prevention.
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Apple introduces new measures to protect the profile of iPhone and Mac users
Apple introduces the new API requirements this fall, forcing application developers to justify collecting certain data to create users profiles through "fingerprinting“.
This measure is added to other measures that Apple has already implemented and by which it protects the profile of iPhone users and MAC computers.
This step is meant to prevent the abuse of APIs for "technologies"fingerprinting", Which collects different data points about users and devices to create unique profiles. This change will ensure that developers use the APIs exclusively for the purposes for which they were created. These measures aim to protect the confidentiality and security of users, avoiding possible improper uses of" technology "fingerprinting“.
What does fingerprinting mean?
Fingerprinting, or the digital imprint, refers to the process of identifying and recognizing a user based on unique and distinctive characteristics. These characteristics can be technical, behavioral or biometric in nature and are used to create a unique "fingerprint" of the respective user.
This Apple requirement will become mandatory for all developers in the near future, to ensure that new applications present in App Store respect these standards from the beginning.
