Apple has updated its App Review Guidelines once again, cracking down on apps that create non-consensual adult images sold using bait-and-switch tactics to get past the review process.
While Apple has a fairly robust App Store review process and guidelines to match, not everything that passes muster does so legitimately. In some cases, developers use deceptive tactics to hide the true nature of an app so that it can enter the App Store, despite having features that are against the rules.
“Bait and switch” apps that show up as one thing on the App Store but can be something very different are not new. This behavior has been used by fraudulent and malicious apps, as well as, in one case, Russian banks.
In the latest crackdown, Apple’s developer site explains why a series of changes have been made to its App Review Guidelines. The news post, published late October 16, explains that this is a change against “non-consensual intimate images and bait-and-switch apps.”
Apps featuring pornographic material have long been banned from the App Store, including those that generate sexually explicit images. This includes “nudification” apps that generate explicit images of real people using user-provided photos, without the subject’s consent.
In July, the city of San Francisco ordered Apple to remove eight of these iPhone apps from the App Store.
Apps with user-generated content are also required to filter objectionable material, allow users to report such content, and allow users to block accounts.
As part of the changes, Apple adds that apps with hidden or undocumented features are also not allowed on the App Store. This includes apps that “misrepresent their purpose during review and only reveal their malicious capabilities after approval.
App Store review changes
1.2: Content moderation requirements now say that apps should proactively prevent or remove content featuring non-consensual intimate images, including content made using AI generation tools.
Rule 2.5.19 clarifies Apple’s position on banning apps with “bait-and-switch” tactics that influence the App Store review process.
While Apple has long blocked apps that enable human trafficking or child exploitation from the App Store, Section 5 clarifies the position. Apps found to facilitate these actions will be removed from the App Store and blocked from “alternative distribution.”
