Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch:
Apple is telling app developers to remove or properly disclose their use of analytics code that allows them to record how a user interacts with their iPhone apps — or face removal from the app store, TechCrunch can confirm.
In an email, an Apple spokesperson said: “Protecting user privacy is paramount in the Apple ecosystem. Our App Store Review Guidelines require that apps request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.”
This is all about GlassBox. From their web site:
Imagine if your website or mobile app could see exactly what your customers do in real time, and why they did it? This is no longer a hypothetical question, but a real possibility. This is Glassbox, an innovative customer experience solution to help your organization manage the results of big data analytics. Glassbox is the first Enterprise analytics platform that analyses every digital customer interaction. Can your website afford not to have a brain?
And here’s a link to the TechCrunch article laying all this out.
Sure, Glassbox has great security for its customers. Too bad those customers aren’t iPhone users.
I think I have a more nuanced view of this, I guess. I’ve been disgusted by analytics for years, but they’re literally everywhere. If an app is capturing analytics, it can probably already tell every tap you make (including the keys) so they can already view your session. In app screenshots make no difference, it can be rendered remotely.
So why are we drawing the line here? It deserves to be about a quarter mile back if it’s going to have any value at all.