Apple plans to require developers to submit reasons to use certain APIs in their apps starting this fall, to prevent the misuse of those APIs for fingerprinting
The App Store review process is very strict to ensure that apps comply with Apple's guidelines. And soon, this whole process will get even stricter.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has previously used App Review to constrain data collection: developers reported update rejections tied to third-party SDKs capable of device fingerprinting in 2021. This move shifts enforcement from detecting problematic SDK behavior after the fact toward requiring an upfront justification for access to selected APIs.
It also extends a longer App Store practice of channeling sensitive functions through approved mechanisms, as with the requirement to use Apple’s official app-rating API. The significance is not a new privacy policy alone, but a more explicit review control over why apps access potentially identifying signals.
First-order effects
- Developers using the designated APIs must document a permitted reason during submission, adding compliance work and potential review risk to releases.
- Apple gains a clearer basis to question or reject API access that appears unrelated to an app’s stated function and could support fingerprinting.
Second-order effects
- SDK vendors and app teams will need to audit whether their libraries invoke covered APIs and provide customers with defensible use cases, or remove that access.
- Apps that rely on device-level signals for measurement, fraud prevention, or personalization may need to distinguish legitimate uses more precisely in their product and review documentation.
Third-order effects
- If Apple continues converting privacy concerns into API-level declarations, App Review becomes a more granular permissioning layer over developer capabilities rather than solely a review of finished app behavior.
- The pattern favors platform-defined, auditable routes for sensitive functionality; the practical boundary will depend on how consistently Apple interprets acceptable reasons across developers.
The trend: Mobile platform governance is moving from broad privacy rules toward capability-specific controls that require developers to justify access before distribution.