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Apple Updates App Store Guidelines, Calls Out 'Creepy' Apps for Exclusion
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Some of these guidelines are hilarious!
- "We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical App."
- "If your App looks like it was cobbled together in a few days, or you're trying to get your first practice App into the store to impress your friends, please brace yourself for rejection. We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour."
- "We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it."
- "If your App is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."
- "This is a living document, and new Apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your App will trigger this."
- "2.11 Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps"
- "14.2 Professional political satirists and humorists are exempt from the ban on offensive or mean-spirited commentary"
- "15.5 Apps that include games of Russian roulette will be rejected"
- "18.1 Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings", will be rejected"
- "We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical App."
- "If your App looks like it was cobbled together in a few days, or you're trying to get your first practice App into the store to impress your friends, please brace yourself for rejection. We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour."
- "We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it."
- "If your App is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."
- "This is a living document, and new Apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your App will trigger this."
- "2.11 Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps"
- "14.2 Professional political satirists and humorists are exempt from the ban on offensive or mean-spirited commentary"
- "15.5 Apps that include games of Russian roulette will be rejected"
- "18.1 Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings", will be rejected"
Sandboxing of keyboards was exactly what Apple said took so long to add support for custom keyboards. They wanted to make sure that they had it done right.
2.11
Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps
Needs to be rigorously enforced.
Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps
Needs to be rigorously enforced.
No health data in iCloud?
I'm actually a little disappointed health related data can't be stored within iCloud. Maybe health kit itself will store data within iCloud? What happens to all that data if you phone is lost/stolen/damaged/upgraded? I could see this being a concern for some. Just thinking of an app that would monitor some metric over time (weeks for example) for a dr and something happens to your phone.
And some of those rules are crazy...trashing them to the media....as funny as some of the rules were I'm surprised that was allowed.
I'm actually a little disappointed health related data can't be stored within iCloud. Maybe health kit itself will store data within iCloud? What happens to all that data if you phone is lost/stolen/damaged/upgraded? I could see this being a concern for some. Just thinking of an app that would monitor some metric over time (weeks for example) for a dr and something happens to your phone.
And some of those rules are crazy...trashing them to the media....as funny as some of the rules were I'm surprised that was allowed.
You are obviously not a (good) developer. Otherwise you would have understood the adaptive concept of iOS8
Glad to hear about Apple taking the high ground on this. At the beginning of the launch of HomeKit and HealthKit, I envisioned "free" apps using these APIs and sending the data to a third party server as it also communicated with the "kit API's." It will be a tough egg to crack to prevent this. Perhaps bonding application houses that use some of these APIs.
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Show the app to a dozen hot girls of high school age. If the majority think it is creepy, it is rejected.
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Show the app to a dozen hot girls of high school age. If the majority think it is creepy, it is rejected.
You are obviously not a (good) developer. Otherwise you would have understood the adaptive concept of iOS8
haha guilty!
This is how Apple will deal with apps like Sketch Factor, which dares to allow people to mark on a map and discuss bad areas in their town. The app was widely criticized as racist because it had the temerity to allow people to tell the truth about bad areas. Not a violation of Apple's rules, so they had to come up with a way to vanquish apps they just don't like. This will creep into political apps and apps that deal with firearms or hunting too, in time, maybe even religious apps.
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Please define "creepy". Are we talking horror-survival games here? Apps that enable stalking? Apps that collect far too much personal information? Apps that make Siri say things about wanting to smell your hair?
I believe you can disable the keyboard's ability to send info back to the developer.
Keyboards also have to he approved to be on the App Store and can be pulled by Apple if it turns out something slips through the net.
I think it's deliberately designed that way to allow wriggle room for something that is objectively 'right' but subjectively 'wrong' to be tackled without too much fuss.
We have laws which are as deliberately vague in the UK in order to make 'the line' very wide and blurry.
the whole snipped quoted is extremely subjective.
one could even argue many of apples own apps down pass muster but they of course come with the caveat of being undeletable as well
Agreed. The App Store is overstuffed. It's like wandering through a Walmart the size of Texas, looking for toothpicks.
How did this get into the app store for 6 years?
https://twitter.com/cygmac/status/506553437958733824/photo/1
https://twitter.com/cygmac/status/506553437958733824/photo/1
Well there go all the google and Facebook apps...
I haven't read their examples of creepy yet, but this seems like a bit of a stretch. So creepy games are out? Do Koran and Bible apps get the boot? Who's to say what's creepy? Not sure I'm down for this one... Oh wait, they have me by the balls...
You should have stopped after your first sentence. In it you described creepy. Creepy is a 3rd party Android voice recording app that wants your contact info and web history. Android doesn't have those apps built in like Apple does.
Anyway, going from there to take a pot shot on people's beliefs may not be creepy but sure is low class. You're better than that.