How To Submit Apple App Privacy Details in 6 Steps
Your app is designed, tested, approved, and ready to revolutionize the world—now you just need to launch it to the masses, and the best way to do it is to submit it to the App Store.
Online privacy has become more critical than ever in the last few years. In 2021, Apple’s iOS update allowed users to limit the data they share with apps and asked app developers to submit Apple app privacy details, which led to incredible transparency for consumers. And with more consumer eyes on the formerly difficult-to-access data, app developers had to reconsider—and sometimes create—privacy policies to meet these new standards for app privacy details.
When your team is ready to submit Apple app privacy details, they’re completing an important step that gives your organization visibility and establishes trust with your audience. The process to submit Apple app privacy details is simple and quick, and here’s your how-to guide for getting it done.
6 Steps To Submit Apple App Privacy Details
Available via the App Store, these app privacy details, known as privacy nutrition labels, help users better understand your app’s privacy practices before they download your app on their Apple device.
The process starts in App Store Connect. You’ll need to provide details about your app’s privacy practices and privacy information about third-party code integrated into your app. Any new app or update to your original app will require you to submit apple app privacy details to the App Store through a privacy questionnaire.
In our experience, the questionnaire takes approximately 15 to 30 minutes to complete. Your legal and development teams will likely need to work together to complete the process accurately. Moreover, collaboration among team members will ensure that your organization obtains the fastest approvals and best outcomes for the application.
Depending on the types of data that your app collects, you may be answering well over 100 questions in total. Your responses will then help generate a “security nutrition label” for your app. Apple displays this label with your app in its App Store listing. Consequently, this new requirement aims to help users make informed decisions about their data privacy.
Follow the steps below to complete the Apple privacy questionnaire.
Apple Privacy Questionnaire
- Start by navigating to your app in App Store Connect, and then click App Privacy in the left sidebar.
- Select Get Started in the center of the page.
- The questionnaire will then direct you to Apple’s definitions of “Collect” and “Third-party partners” via the Data Collection screen. After reviewing this information, answer the following question: “Do you or your third-party partners collect data from this app?”
- A No response will make for a short questionnaire. However, this answer is rarely accurate. Most apps collect usage data to give developers insight to guide future app enhancement decisions. If your app collection is anonymized and not connected to a particular device, session, or user, then “No” may be appropriate.
- A Yes answer will prompt further inquiry into the types of data you and your third-party partners collect.
- Stage 1: Data Types: As mentioned above, a Yes response will require you to provide information on your data collection practices. Apple groups data into the 14 data types listed below. Be sure to check a box next to every kind of data your app collects. Specific requirements for each category may change. Read the details carefully, and consult App Store Connect Help for further information.
- Contact Info
- Health and Fitness
- Financial Info
- Location
- Sensitive Info (for example, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, etc.)
- Contacts
- User Content (this includes emails or text messages, photos or videos, audio data, gameplay content, customer support, and more)
- Browsing History
- Search History
- Identifiers (specifically, user ID and device ID)
- Purchases
- Usage Data (product interaction, advertising data, etc.)
- Diagnostics
- Other Data (i.e., any other data types not mentioned)
- Stage 2: Data Usage Subcategories: Now that you’ve selected the data types captured in your app, you can complete the final round of follow-up questions to submit Apple app privacy details. You must address the following six data usage subcategories:
- Third-Party Advertising, for example, displaying third-party ads in your app or sharing data with entities that display third-party ads.
- Developer’s Advertising or Marketing, including the display of first-party ads in your app, marketing communications sent directly to users, or data shared with entities who will display your ads.
- Analytics, or using data to evaluate user behaviors, including understanding the effectiveness of existing product features, planning new features, or measuring audience size or characteristics.
- Product Personalization, or customizing what the user sees.
- App Functionality, including collecting data to authenticate users, enabling features to prevent fraud, and improving scalability and performance (among several others).
- Other Purposes, meaning any other purpose not listed.
- After providing answers to all of the questions in the two stages of the questionnaire, you can finally click the Publish button on your app’s main App Privacy page. By making this selection, you’ve finally completed the process to submit Apple app privacy details requirements. You’re now ready to submit your app for review!