App Store privacy labels: Can iOS apps access personal data without permission?
Hey guys,
I noticed that on the App Store page for a well know messenger app , under “Data Linked to You”, the following categories are listed:
- Purchases
- Financial Info
- Location
- Contact Info
- Contacts
- User Content
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
For things like “Location” or “Contacts”, I know that apps normally need to request permission before they can access that data. What I don’t fully understand are the other categories.
According to Apple’s explanation here
“Contact Info” includes things like your name, phone number, physical address or email address, and “Financial Info” even mentions payment card numbers and bank account details.
What does this actually mean in practice?
Can an app obtain my name, phone number, address, email address or bank account details simply by being installed, without explicitly asking for any permission first? Or do these categories only refer to information that users have to manually enter into the app themselves?
I’m not an iOS developer myself, and I’m having a hard time finding clear explanations in Apple’s documentation about what is technically possible and what isn’t.
Maybe someone here with more experience can explain how these App Store privacy labels are actually supposed to be interpreted.