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## App Store & Privacy

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Your searches, browsing, purchases, and device trust score may be used to personalize your experience, send you notifications including for Apple marketing, improve the store, and prevent fraud.

App Store is designed to protect your information and let you choose what you share.

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- We collect your personal data so that we can provide you the content you purchase, download, or want to update in the App Store and other Apple online stores, including the iTunes Store and Apple Books.
- We also use information about your account, purchases, and downloads in the stores to offer advertising to ensure that ads on the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks, where available, are relevant to you. You have choices with respect to this advertising, as described below.
- We use information about your purchases, downloads, and other activities in the stores to tailor features, offer personalized recommendations, and send you notifications including for Apple marketing. You can opt out of the use of this data for this purpose, as described below.
- To help identify and prevent fraud, information about how you use your device, including the approximate number of phone calls or emails you send and receive, will be used to compute a device trust score when you attempt a purchase. The submissions are designed so Apple cannot learn the real values on your device. The scores are stored for a fixed time on our servers.
- To find ways to improve the stores, we use information about your browsing, purchases, searches, and downloads. These records may be stored with IP address, a random unique identifier (where that arises), and Apple Account when you are signed in to the App Store or other Apple online stores.

Providing the Stores

We use your personal data to provide the services and features in the App Store and other Apple online stores. This information includes, for example, your account and payment information, which you can access and change in settings, and your purchase history.

We may also use your personal data to provide certain services that you request, such as refund requests. These can include refund requests that you send directly to Apple or that you send to Apple as facilitated by app developers. With your consent, developers may provide certain personal data to Apple to assist with processing these refund requests, such as whether you used the purchase.

When you download an app from the App Store, or install an app on your Apple Watch, identifiers such as your device’s hardware ID and IP address are logged by Apple along with your Apple Account.

Improving the Stores

To improve the experience in the App Store and other Apple online stores, we collect information about your usage of the stores, including when you open or close the App Store, what content you search for, the content you view and download, and your interactions with App Store push notifications and badges, as well as messages from the App Store within apps. We also collect information about your device such as the type of device, the version of your operating system, and the amount of free space on your device. We may use this information in the following ways:

- To offer trending searches and personalized features like More Games You Might Like
- To assess whether requested content can be downloaded
- To understand general trends in the use of device storage, and whether your device is connected by Wi-Fi or cellular

We may also use your ratings and reviews of apps on the App Store and what you search for to improve models that power the App Store. For example, app reviews and aggregated search queries from you and other App Store users are used to provide review summaries and to fine-tune the App Store search model.

Personalizing the Stores

We use your interactions with the App Store to help you discover the content that’s most relevant to you. For example, we recommend content that we think will be of interest to you based on what you’ve previously searched for, viewed, downloaded, updated, or reviewed in the App Store. We also use your purchase history, including in-app purchases, subscriptions, and payment methods together with account information derived from your Apple Account, such as the devices you use and new devices you activate. To make better recommendations, we also use aggregate information about app launches, installs, and deletions from users who choose to share device analytics with Apple, and aggregate information about app ratings. The App Store uses local, on-device processing to enhance our recommendations. Using app usage data stored on your device — such as the apps you frequently open, the time you spend using certain apps, and your app installs and uninstalls — the App Store can suggest apps and in-app events that are more relevant to you. The information Apple receives about your usage of the stores includes information about the personalized content you tap and view.

You can turn off personalization features in the App Store, Apple Books, the iTunes Store, Apple TV, Podcasts, and for subscriptions from Apple by turning off Personalized Recommendations for your Apple Account. On your iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS device, go to Settings > [your name] > Media & Purchases > View Account, and then tap to turn off Personalized Recommendations. You can clear the app usage data logged on your device for personalization on iOS and iPadOS devices by going to Settings > App Store > Personalized Recommendations and tapping Clear App Usage Data. This will not delete data logged on your device, but any data logged at the point when you clear your app usage data will no longer be used for personalization. The App Store personalization features will use new data logged after you cleared your app usage data history.

Communicating with You

Apple may use information about your account, such as the Apple products you own and your subscriptions to Apple services, to send you communications about the App Store and other Apple products, services, and offers that may be of interest to you. Apple may also use information about your activity within the App Store to send you communications about new features, content, and offers available on the App Store.

Email Marketing


You may receive these communications by email, if you consent to receive email marketing. You can change your email preferences and opt out of receiving these emails by going to account.apple.com, or on your iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS device by going to Settings > [your name] > Personal Information > Communication Preferences.Push Notifications


You may also receive these communications by push notification. To update your notification preferences or to opt out of notifications on your iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS device, go to Settings > Notifications > App Store.


AdvertisingApple-delivered advertising helps people discover apps, products, and services on the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. We use information about your device, account, purchases, subscriptions, and previous downloads to ensure that ads are relevant. On the App Store, we may also use contextual information, including your search terms when you run a search, and information about the page you are viewing or the app you are downloading, to serve you a relevant ad. We create groups of people, called segments, who share similar characteristics and we use these groups for delivering targeted ads. Information about you is used to determine which segments you are assigned to, and thus, which ads you receive. To protect your privacy, targeted ads are delivered only if more than 5,000 people meet the targeting criteria. The information used to determine which ads are relevant to you is tied to random identifiers and not tied to your Apple Account.

When selecting which ad to display on the App Store from multiple ads for which you are eligible, we may use some of the above mentioned information, as well as your App Store searches and browsing activity, to determine which ad is likely to be most relevant to you. App Store browsing activity includes information like the content and apps you tap and view while browsing the App Store. This information is aggregated across users so that it does not identify you. We may also use local, on-device processing to select which ad to display, using information stored on your device, such as the apps you frequently open. Apple’s advertising platform receives information about the ads you tap and view against a random identifier not tied to your Apple Account.

If you allow App Store to access to your location, your approximate location may be used to provide geographically targeted ads on the App Store. You can opt out of location-based functionality at any time on your iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS device by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > App Store, then tapping Never.

If the Personalized Ads setting is turned on, Apple’s advertising platform may use your information to serve ads that are more relevant to you. If you do not want to receive ads targeted to your interests from Apple’s advertising platform, you can choose to turn off Personalized Ads. Turning off Personalized Ads will prevent Apple from using your information for ad targeting. It may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you.

Learn more about Apple Advertising & Privacy at www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-advertising.

Learn how to opt out of personalized ads on the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks at support.apple.com/105131.

Sharing with Third Parties

We are obligated to provide some non-personal data to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple’s behalf to display in the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. For example, we may share non-personal data about your content purchases with app developers so that they can measure the performance of their creative work, meet royalty and accounting requirements, and improve their products and services.

We may share information with developers to help them operate and improve their apps. Developers can access usage information, provided by users who opt in, that allows them to look at aggregated data from groups of users that have similar characteristics or behavior, as long as the data comes from groups of no less than five users. Developers can access receipt information for purchases and refunds of their products and services in the App Store. Receipts do not include personal data; however, developers could seek to associate them with personal data from your use and download of their apps, if you have provided it to them.

If you purchase a subscription in a third-party app, we create a Subscriber ID that is unique to you and the developer or publisher. We use the Subscriber ID to provide reports to the developer that include information about the subscription you purchased and your country or region of residence. This information is provided to developers so that they can understand the performance of their subscriptions. If you cancel all of your subscriptions with a particular developer, and if you don’t resubscribe, the Subscriber ID will be reset after 180 days.



In certain regions, if you make an external purchase for digital goods or services for an app, meaning your purchase is not made with Apple’s in-app payment system, the app developer for that app will report to Apple information about the purchase, including amount paid and item purchased, for Apple’s accounting, reporting, and analytics purposes. Apple does not link the purchase information to your Apple Account.In addition, when automatic downloads of in-app content from app developers occur, your device’s IP address will be visible to the app developer before the app is first opened. The handling of your IP address by the app developer is governed by the app developer’s privacy policies. To turn off automatic downloads of in-app content from developers before you first open an app, go to Settings > App Store, then tap to turn off In-App Content.

Applicable Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

We process your personal data in the App Store generally for performance of your contract with Apple, as necessary for providing the service, and to comply with our legal obligations. Where consent is the appropriate legal basis, we seek it in accordance with applicable local law.

Where applicable local law provides, we process personal data as necessary for purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party in order to:

- Display relevant content, assess whether your device has enough space to download requested content, and facilitate automatic downloads of updated content
- Help improve and optimize the App Store for you and others
- Send you offers via email and push notifications that may be of interest to you, and to create segments to serve you ads in the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks
- Process refund requests
- Provide reporting to developers on purchases in their apps
- Prevent fraud and other malicious activity

The data used includes:

- Your use of the App Store app, such as your interactions with content you search for, view, download, and purchase, as well as App Store notifications and messages and in-app notifications and messages
- Details about your device and account
- Your IP address
- The device trust score

Retention

We retain personal data associated with your purchases and downloads on the App Store and other Apple online stores for the periods specified by applicable laws relating to financial reporting, which vary by region. For most customers, that requires at least a 10-year retention period but in regions such as China that period can be 30 years. We also retain a record of your purchase and downloads of content for at least as long as you have an account with us to allow you to download that content, again in line with our applicable terms. We retain other information such as browsing activity and searches for a shorter period. The period chosen takes account of applicable legal requirements to retain data and specific business use cases. However, some information, such as purchases but not your stored card details, may be retained as business records even after you close your account or stop using the App Store.

When you use a payment card, Apple may retain and automatically update your card number and billing information for future purchases, recurring transactions, or other uses you authorize. Apple may obtain this information from your financial institution or payment network, and also use it for fraud prevention and verification.

Preventing Fraud and Other Malicious Activity

We also collect personal data to prevent fraud and other malicious activity in the App Store and other Apple online stores, and other Apple apps and services. This information includes device information, such as device type and software version, location information (approximated by matching the IP address of your internet connection to a geographic region, if available), download and purchase history, searches, and other interactions with the stores.

When you initiate a purchase, or when a subscription is set to auto-renew, Apple may use information about your historical business relationship with Apple to process the request and determine whether to provide the product or service in advance of authorization by the payment partner.

We also compute a device trust score on your device when you attempt a purchase using information about how you use your device, including the approximate number of phone calls or emails you send and receive. The submission is designed so Apple cannot learn the underlying values on your device. The score is stored for a fixed time on our servers.

At all times, information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.

Published Date: November 6, 2024