In email snafu, Apple appears to be sending some developers, who are using Search Ads Basic, ad spend and install details for other developers' apps
Feb 6, 2018, 11:41 amFeb 6, 2018, 2:37 pm — An issue at Apple appears to be resulting in app developers getting emails of ad spend …
Context & Ripple Effects
Search Ads Basic is barely two months old: Apple introduced the pay-per-install product in December 2017 alongside renaming its older pay-per-click offering Search Ads Advanced. Now an email snafu is sending some Basic advertisers spend and install figures for other developers' apps — sensitive competitive data from a platform that positions itself as a neutral storefront.
First-order effects
- Developers using Search Ads Basic are receiving other developers' confidential ad spend and install data by email, exposing their own campaign performance in turn and undermining confidence in a product they just started paying for.
Second-order effects
- The incident hands ammunition to developers already wary of Apple's expanding ad business — the same wariness that later surfaced in complaints over new App Store ad units and suspicions that Apple buys Google ads pointing at subscription apps (developers suspecting Apple of buying Google ads).
Third-order effects
- If Apple keeps scaling App Store advertising while mishandling advertiser data, trust becomes the binding constraint on its ad ambitions, pushing toward stricter internal controls or external scrutiny of how the platform handles developer information.
The trend: As Apple builds out App Store advertising into a major revenue line, operational missteps like this one test whether developers will treat it as a trustworthy ad platform rather than a conflicted gatekeeper.