Mobile App Series: Privacy by Design
App developers who pay 30% commission fee to Apple via In-App Purchasing should take note of an important legal decision recently presented to the Supreme Court for possible review. The Supreme Court’s decision whether to...more
On June 30, after a 5-month delay from the originally-scheduled effective date (to give app developers more time to comply), Apple’s new account deletion requirement went into effect. As a result, companies with mobile apps...more
A recent decision from Judge Edward M. Chen in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California focuses on the sufficiency of allegations of market definition to state a claim for federal antitrust...more
On Friday, N.D. Cal. Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez issued an order in the high-profile Epic Games v. Apple App Store tilt, finding that Apple “violated California’s laws against unfair competition by barring app developers...more
In this third installment of the Antitrust Spotlight on the Epic v. Apple trial, we cover key issues identified by the court during closing arguments and post-trial briefing, as well as the arguments highlighted by the...more
On April 21, 2021, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights held a hearing to discuss Google and Apple’s role in the mobile app ecosystem and their effect on third-party app...more
As of this week, Apple’s requirements for apps to follow its AppTrackingTransparency are now in effect. These requirements went hand-in-hand with the iOS 14.5 launch, and impacts how an app can track users and access their...more
Earlier this month, Apple, Inc. implemented its long-anticipated privacy practice guidelines for application (app) developers featured on its App Store platform. These new guidelines demonstrate Apple’s continuing efforts to...more
During its summer conference this year, Apple announced that later in 2020, it would require application developers to provide in-depth detail regarding their data collection and use practices to give users more information...more
When Apple announced that one of the major focuses of iOS 14 would be enhancing user privacy, many in the tech community had questions. How would these changes be rolled out? How would they affect not only the mobile...more
Apple and the Fearsome five are doing it again. The same people who pushed the fallacious “troll bogeyman”; engaged in PTAB proxy warfare, seemingly immunized by the “real party in interest doctrine”; invented the...more
On Tuesday I wrote about how Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney was engaging Apple on at least three battlefronts. I missed a battlefront and I’m here today to rectify that mistake. I mentioned Epic’s groundbreaking and lucrative...more
Tim Sweeney, the Colossus of Cary, is fighting even bigger foes – Apple and Google. The multibillionaire chief executive of Epic Games has opened a multi-front war on the tribute that app developers are forced to pay to reach...more
Does My Video Game Violate Consumers’ Privacy Rights? The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is the first broad-based state statute aimed at enhancing personal privacy rights for consumers. Following the example set by...more
New tracking and privacy-related features will apply to all iOS apps when iOS 14 is released in September 2020. Key Points: ..During Apple’s WWDC 2020 keynote address on June 22, 2020, Apple announced two key privacy...more
With consumers, gamers and lawmakers expressing concerns about whether loot boxes are predatory or contribute to gambling-like behavior, game developers can take steps to minimize the possibility of their games inviting...more
Changes to Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines are facing backlash from developers across a variety of industries. In changes to Guidelines 1.3 and 5.1.4, Apple placed limits on third-party tracking in child-centric apps....more
A recent issue of MIT’s Technology Review magazine is titled, “Look how far precision medicine has come.“ At least part of the premise is that personalized medicine or precision medicine is not perceived as having made the...more
Apple’s removal of VPN apps from its app store in China could signal a difficult road ahead for companies doing business there. In March 2017, we posted a summary of China’s new cyber security law (Law) that went into effect...more
In a significant Illinois Brick decision, the Ninth Circuit recently issued an opinion concluding that consumers who purchase apps from Apple’s “app store” directly purchase those apps from Apple, which acts as a distributor....more
Apple announced CareKit on Monday, a new, open-source software framework designed to help app developers in the medical care space enable people to actively manage their own medical conditions. The press release states...more
California Court to PGA Tour Caddies: You'll Get Nothing and Like It! As the full swing of the PGA season rounds the corner, and with the azaleas blooming at Augusta, the trusted confidants of golf's premier players...more
For corporations, the mobile app is today’s website. Back in the late 1990s, no self-respecting company, no matter how stodgy and old-fashioned, wanted to be without a website....more
Recently, the mobile platforms have played an important role in improving end-user privacy. Along these lines, Apple, in or around iOS version 6.0, created a new, unique identifier that could be used in place of the UDID and...more