Last week, Apple introduced a new discovery feature for the App Store called Personalized Collections, or app recommendations based on individual interests and behavior. Apple presented the announcement as another way for developers to get their app discovered, but there has already been pushback from a privacy perspective.
App Store user analytics collected by Apple (Image: Mysk)
New personalized recommendations may appear in the Apps, Games, and Search tabs and evolve over time based on user usage and app downloads. Apple does this through analytical data, but the breadth of information the company captures has set off alarm bells among some cybersecurity researchers.
Security researchers Mysk claim that Apple records “every click” in the App Store that a user enters in order to develop the recommendations. Quoting an article shared on X (Twitter):
“Apple is now putting into action the deep ID analytics they collect in the App Store. They record every tap and there’s no way to turn them off. They can even calculate your typing speed.”
The message was accompanied by the screenshot above. “This is what the App Store sent to Apple when I searched for ‘Tim Cook,'” one of the searchers said. In response to a response, Mysk noted that the screenshot did not show search results, but in-depth scans. “If you don’t like Apple Music’s privacy options, you can stream music from Spotify, but where can you download apps on iPhone?” they added.
Mysk said analytics from the screenshot were included in the personal data dump that individual users can request from Apple through Privacy.apple.com.
Is capturing everything you do in the App Store an invasion of privacy? Opinions will differ. But there’s an argument to be made for custom collections being optional, rather than the all-in-one functionality Apple’s rolling out. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
