Ahead of ATT privacy update release, Apple notifies developers that all apps to be built on iOS 14 SDK or later starting April 26

Ahead of the ATT privacy feature’s launch, Apple has released a series of new requirements for developers. Starting on Monday, April 26, the company states that all iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built on Xcode 12 and iOS 14 SDK or later to ensure implementation of the new opt-in tracking feature.

The upcoming iOS 14.5 update is packed with a lot of new features and updates and the most important of them all is the new App Tracking Transparency update which will make it mandatory for developers to seek users’ permission to track their online activity across third-party apps and websites on an iPhone. Currently, developers users IDFA trackers to access users’ online activity to show targetted ads, however, apps were caught tracking users’ activity via invasive means which put users’ privacy and security at risk. Now, Apple is going to prevent dubious tracking by introducing the ATT privacy feature.

Apple reminds developers to strictly follow ATT privacy rules ahead of iOS 14.5 release

Putting concerns of Apple’s commitment to user privacy to rest, the company asks developers to ensure that their apps must be built of iOS 14 SDK  when submitting them for review by April 26. The new guidelines read:

With the upcoming public release of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, all apps must use the AppTrackingTransparency framework to request the user’s permission to track them or to access their device’s advertising identifier. Unless you receive permission from the user to enable tracking, the device’s advertising identifier value will be all zeros and you may not track them.

When submitting your app for review, any other form of tracking — for example, by name or email address — must be declared in the product page’s ‌App Store‌ Privacy Information section and be performed only if permission is granted through AppTrackingTransparency. You’ll also need to include a purpose string in the system prompt to explain why you’d like to track the user, per ‌App Store‌ Review Guideline 5.1.2(i). These requirements apply to all apps starting April 26, 2021.

iOS 14.5 is currently available as a release candidate and the final version is expected to launch next week.

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