The more transparent privacy labels Apple promised in June have made their debut.
Customers will now easily be able to see the information that an app intends to collect from them on app pages, similar to looking at a nutrition label on a can of peas in the grocery store. Apple requires developers add these data “nutrition labels” by Dec. 8.
Developers have to disclose all the data they and third-party partners collect, including contact information, health and fitness, financial info, location, sensitive info, contacts, user content, browsing history, search history, identifiers, purchases, usage data, and diagnostics. Each collected data type has to correspond to a particular purpose, such as advertising or analytics.
If, say, an app needs your location to work, you’ll know before you download it. The data labels must be easy to understand, and developers will have to update them whenever things change.
In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook called out other tech companies for “lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information” and then monetizing it. “We think that's wrong,” he said at the time. “And it's not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”