Apple has not removed any apps from its App Store for violations related to location-based services, Apple executive Guy Tribble told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.
In most cases, Apple tries to identify potentially troublesome apps before they are admitted into the App Store or work with the developer to resolve any issues that arise, Tribble told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law during a hearing on cell phone location services.
"Our first defense is to not put them there in the first place," Tribble, vice president of software technology at Apple, said when asked how many apps have been removed because they shared location information without permission. "All of the apps to date ... have fixed their apps rather than get yanked from the App Store."
As a result, Apple has removed "zero" apps for location violations, he said.
When asked more generally about how Apple polices apps that are in its App Store, Tribble said that it "curates" submitted apps and rejects those that don't adhere to its terms.
"Once they're in the App Store, we do random audits on apps," Tribble said. "We have 350,000 [apps, so] we don't audit every single one, just like the federal government doesn't audit every single tax return."
Apple does, however, audit a select few apps and monitors the network traffic produced by those apps to make sure they are properly respecting the privacy of Apple's users, Tribble said. The company will also investigate if it receives a complaint or a particular app is receiving attention in the press or blogosphere.
Apple developers, however, are "highly incented to stay in the App Store," so they typically make the necessary corrections to remain there, Tribble said. Usually that involves adding a pop-up notice telling users how location information is used.
Google was also at today's hearing and said it takes a "slightly different approach" when it comes to monitoring apps. In the interest of openness, Google does not monitor apps once they are added to the Android Marketplace, said Alan Davidson, director of public policy at Google.
"We've chosen not to be the gatekeeper," he said. "We don't generally go back and try to make sure that every app does what it says it's going to do. [Google is] really trying to maximize the ability of small app developers to get online."
If it receives complaints, however, Google will remove apps that are unlawful, violate it terms, or do things like spread malware.
When asked if requiring apps to have a clear, understandable privacy policy would help the location problem, Apple was skeptical.
A privacy policy is probably "not enough," Tribble said. "People may not read a privacy policy," so it's better to put things in the user interface that make it clear when location services are active, like the pop-up notices and the purple arrow in the top right-hand corner that tells users when their iPhone is collecting location data.
Davidson said Google has relied on a permissions-based system, but will take the privacy policy suggestions "back to our leadership."
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