from Hacker News

Apple Rejecting Apps For Not Showing Ads

by slaven on 2/2/14, 3:09 AM with 23 comments

  • by sneak on 2/2/14, 4:44 AM

    No, Apple is rejecting apps for pulling the advertising unique identifier and not using it for ads, but instead to spy.

    Stop it.

  • by lstamour on 2/2/14, 6:25 AM

    Original text from Apple with tips to fix using strings and otool at: https://github.com/mixpanel/mixpanel-iphone/issues/109

    Note that this affects quite a few major platforms:

    * parse.com seems to have added it when they added social.framework for Facebook features

    * TestFlight uses it for obvious reasons: https://testflightapp.com/sdk/ios/doc/2.0.0/ -- they add it even if you forget to.

    * Mixpanel affected (with workaround above)

    Not affected:

    * AFAIK, Google doesn't use it unless you added it as a custom metric with your own custom code (or a third-party integration library)

    * Flurry split off their advertising library from their analytics one, in part likely because of this requirement from Apple. If you implement just the analytics, it does not require AdSupport.framework.

  • by awakeasleep on 2/2/14, 5:23 AM

    This might be a shot at Stripe/Braintree/Paypal. All those companies want to use the IDFA as a part of their scheme to uniquely identify devices/users for their one touch payment solution, and Apple has been rumored to be getting into the mobile payments arena.

  • by andrewflnr on 2/2/14, 6:19 AM

    Even if Apple has some nefarious motive for doing this, if it really does have a beneficial effect on privacy, I find it hard to fault them for it. Can we save the pitchforks and torches for when they do something actually bad? (that is a serious question, there are arguments both ways)

  • by FireBeyond on 2/2/14, 4:35 AM

    I’m not sure my understanding of this is correct. It seems to be crying about the problems this will cause. Ostensibly, it’s saying that there’s a problem with the identifier for ads being requested in apps that don’t have ads (i.e. being used as a surrogate identifier).

    But, more nefariously (again, if my understanding is correct) it’s saying that many ad networks rely on this info being passed to advertisers (despite the policy being that it shouldn’t), and how problematic it’s going to be if Apple enforces this policy.

    If this is the case, my sympathy is close to zero. Not because “advertising = bad”, but because this was a known no-no. Don’t cry foul when you can’t do what you were told you couldn’t.

  • by egb on 2/2/14, 3:26 PM

    I got rejected, but I _do_ show ads. My guess is Apple is targeting particular SDKs/libraries, and so that even apps that are showing ads are getting flagged. Not sure what the resolution is going to be - still waiting on an Apple response.

    I've got a whole bunch of libs included, several of which use AdSupport. Arg.

  • by AugustusLongeye on 2/2/14, 4:41 AM

    Hang on, you think Apple are worried about the privacy of end users? I call shenanigans! There are likely many reasons they're doing this, that is firmly at the bottom of the list three rooms over entitled "things Apple don't care about".