App Store & Privacy

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

• We collect your personal information 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 iTunes Store, Apple Books, and iTunes U.
• 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 and offer personalized recommendations for you. 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 are stored with IP address, a random unique identifier (where that arises), and Apple ID when you are signed in to the App Store or other Apple online stores.

Providing the Stores

We use your personal information 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.

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 ID.

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, and the content you view and download. 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 to assess whether requested content can be downloaded, to understand general trends in use of device storage, and whether your device is connected by Wi-Fi or cellular. For example, we may use this information in the following ways:

• What you search for makes it possible for us to offer trending searches.

• Knowing what content you view or download makes it possible for us to offer personalized features like More Games You Might Like.

Personalizing the Stores

We use your interactions with the App Store to help you discover the content that’s most relevant to you and to send you notifications. 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, and payment methods together with account information derived from your Apple ID. 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. You can disable personalization features by turning off Personalized Recommendations for your Apple ID. On iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > [your name] > Media & Purchases, and then tap to turn off Personalized Recommendations.

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 emails and push notifications about new features, content, and offers available on the App Store. You can change your email preferences and opt out of receiving these emails by going to appleid.apple.com. To update your notification preferences on iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Notifications > App Store.

Advertising

Apple-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 downloads to ensure that ads are relevant. When you search on the App Store, we also use your search terms. 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 ID.

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 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.

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 support.apple.com/kb/HT205223.

Learn how to opt out of personalized ads on the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks at support.apple.com/kb/HT202074 .

Sharing with Third Parties

We are obligated to provide some non-personal information 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 and Apple News and Stocks. For example, we may share non-personal information 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 information; however, developers could seek to associate them with personal information 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. You can learn more about Subscriber ID at support.apple.com/kb/HT205223.

Retention

We retain personal information 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 ten-year retention period. 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.

Preventing Fraud and Other Malicious Activity

We also collect personal information 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 (if available), download and purchase history, and other interactions with the stores. When you initiate a purchase, 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.

Information about products not manufactured by Apple, or independent websites not controlled or tested by Apple, is provided without recommendation or endorsement. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance, or use of third-party websites or products. Apple makes no representations regarding third-party website accuracy or reliability. Contact the vendor for additional information.

Published Date: April 26, 2021

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