GoKawiilApple recently introduced Personalized Collections in the App Store, which provides users with individually tailored recommendations for new apps they might enjoy.
Two security researchers have highlighted the extremely extensive analytics data the company is capturing in order to compile these recommendations, logging every tap you make …
Apple recently announced the new feature as part of a range of new App Store capabilities, intended to help developers find new users for their apps.
To help more people find apps and games they will love, the App Store will introduce new Personalized Collections based on user interests, along with App Notes that explain why specific apps are recommended. These tailored recommendations can appear on the Apps, Games, and Search tabs, evolving over time based on a user’s app usage and downloads. Personalized Collections and App Notes start rolling out this week in English in the U.S., with additional languages and regions coming soon.
Security researchers Mysk pointed out that the App Store app is recording every tap you make in order to power this feature, and there is no option to turn off this data capture.
Now Apple is putting the extensive identifiable analytics they collect in the App Store in action. They record every tap and there’s no way to turn it off. They can even calculate your typing speed. This is what the App Store sends to Apple when I searched for “Tim cook” [See screenshot above]
In response to a comment, Mysk said this wasn’t just the endpoint that returned the search results as you type, but rather analytics data sent to Apple.
9to5Mac’s Take
Apple seeing what I type as I carry out an App Store search isn’t an issue for me personally, but it would be consistent with Apple’s more general approach to privacy provide a toggle giving users the option to switch off this capture.