Friday, April 16, 2010

iPhone Analytics & Location Based Ad Targeting– Prohibited by Apple

App Analytics

It appears that, according to the new developer agreement, iPhone and iPad developers cannot use any 3rd party analytics application to collect any kind of iPhone or iPad usage data. According to the clause,
Device Data may not be provided or disclosed to a third party without Apple’s prior written consent. Accordingly, the use of third party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited.
(Source: Apple Changes Rules on iPhone App Analytics)

It is not clear what the “Device Data” actually means. Does it just cover the OS/Browser, screen size etc. or does it cover any data collected by the app?
However, based on an email from an iPhone developer, referenced in a venturebeat.com blog post, it appears that this clause might cover pretty much any data collected via the applications.

> We’ve reviewed your
> application and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone
> application to the App Store. It is not appropriate for applications to
> gather user analytics. Specifically, you may not collect anonymous play
> data from a user’s game. A screenshot of this issue has been attached for
> your reference.
>
> In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please
> resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.



Ad Targeting

Part of this clause is also a statement about location-based ad targeting.
“The use of location-based User Data for enabling targeted advertising in an Application is prohibited unless targeted advertising is the purpose of such Application (e.g., a geo-location coupon application).”

Some other great post on this topic are

Is this a step to control all advertising on iPhone and iPad? Is Apple is about to roll out its own iPhone and iPad analytics solution? Perhaps buy one of the existing vendors?

What are your thoughts?


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