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I just took a look. I find them rather abstract, verbose, and repetitive, like cookie notices. I too think it's a decent start. Personally I would use the label

I just took a look. I find them rather abstract, verbose, and repetitive, like cookie notices. I too think it's a decent start. Personally I would use the labels to look into a certain few sensitive apps, anything health or dating-related. There are a dozen or so items split between three lists: (1) Data Used to Track You, (2) Data Linked to You, and (3) Data Not Linked to You. The distinction between (1) and (2) is not entirely clear. The language is ishy-washy: "The following data may be collected and linked to your identity." Is or isn't it? I would like to see firm language: "...data will be collected..." > Really we need parental advisory ratings like we have for movies to easily know which apps sell data. I agree. There's value in the App Store privacy labels if you really dive in, but I doubt that many people will scroll to the bottom of an app page to properly read the privacy label. I think it'd be useful for many users to see a punchy above-the-fold badge that says "Privacy-friendly", "Uses some personal data", or "Uses a lot of personal data" (or terser copy to those effects) and links to the detailed privacy label further down-page.

CodesInChaos 6y ago
I think it's phrased "may be collected" because often data will only be collected under certain circumstances, either because the user chooses to fill in optional fields or because they use a specific feature requiring that data.
daveoc64 6y ago
Your complaints are down to the nature of the "one size fits all" approach in use here. If an app offers 99% online experiences, and there's one part of the service where you can choose to have something physically shipped to you, they have to say that they collect your physical/mailing address. There's no way for the app to tell you when it does or doesn't do that. The same is true for many other things - optional 2FA via SMS (phone number), optional search for nearest location (location tracking) etc.
- shuckles 6y ago
  It seems like the policy has an exception for infrequent data collection with user consent that’s not core to the functionality of your app (c.f. “Optional Disclosure”): https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/
  - daveoc64 6y ago
    I'm glad there's an exception like that. It will mean that things like a form to contact support won't require an app to list a whole bunch of data that isn't normally collected. I think perhaps that there needs to be some better way of distinguishing how the categories work. Should anyone be surprised that Amazon needs payment details and an address to send you something?

CodesInChaos 6y ago

I think it's phrased "may be collected" because often data will only be collected under certain circumstances, either because the user chooses to fill in optional fields or because they use a specific feature requiring that data.

daveoc64 6y ago

Your complaints are down to the nature of the "one size fits all" approach in use here. If an app offers 99% online experiences, and there's one part of the service where you can choose to have something physically shipped to you, they have to say that they collect your physical/mailing address. There's no way for the app to tell you when it does or doesn't do that. The same is true for many other things - optional 2FA via SMS (phone number), optional search for nearest location (location tracking) etc.

shuckles 6y ago
It seems like the policy has an exception for infrequent data collection with user consent that’s not core to the functionality of your app (c.f. “Optional Disclosure”): https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/
- daveoc64 6y ago
  I'm glad there's an exception like that. It will mean that things like a form to contact support won't require an app to list a whole bunch of data that isn't normally collected. I think perhaps that there needs to be some better way of distinguishing how the categories work. Should anyone be surprised that Amazon needs payment details and an address to send you something?