Facebook launched its Facebook Gaming app for iOS primarily an app used to watch streamers play video games, but removed the app’s mini games feature to pass Apple’s strict App Store approval process.
According to Facebook, the Gaming app rejected multiple times by Apple in recent months. The company reported that Apple cited App Store guideline 4.7 to justify the rejections, claiming the primary purpose of the Facebook Gaming app is to play games.
The new app is primarily used to watch streams of games, much like Twitch is used on both iOS and Android. But on Android, the app also includes a number of mini games from Facebook’s Instant Games platform. That’s what Apple won’t allow.
On other hand, last week in an antitrust hearing before a congressional subcommittee, Apple CEO Tim Cook was accused of harming competition in the App Store, and Microsoft's Project xCloud app has faced similar challenges to Facebook's.
Gaming App
On Thursday, Microsoft said Apple was blocking its efforts to bring its game streaming service to iPhone and iPad users.
Later, Apple unveiled features in the upcoming OS for iPhone and iPad that would require apps to display a pop-up screen before enabling the commonly required tracking format to display personalized ads, that are usually associated with Google and Facebook.
Up to 16 marketing associations backed by Facebook and Google’s Alphabet criticized Apple for not adhering to the advertising system to request user consent under European privacy rules.
These associations said that applications will now request location permission twice, which increases the risk of users disapproving.
The European Marketing Group said the pop-up warning and the limited ability to allocate it still carried a ‘high risk of user rejection’.
Facebook and Google are the largest companies that track consumers online to learn about their habits and interests and provide relevant ads to them.
Also, a group of European digital advertising societies criticized Apple’s plans to demand apps for additional permission from users before tracking them across apps and other websites.
The iPhone maker said the new feature aims to give users greater transparency about how their information is used. Apple also showed, during a training sessions at a developer conference last week, that developers can introduce any number of additional screens in advance to explain why permission is needed before launching the popup.
The pop-up says that the app wants permission to track you through other companies’ apps and websites and gives the app’s developer several lines below the main text to explain the reason for requesting access to location. This is not required until the application seeks access to a digital ID that can be used for tracking, and applications need to only secure permission once.
An Apple privacy engineer Brandon Van Ryswyk said that the company will use a tool with anonymous data to measure whether ad campaigns will trigger a pop-up to alert users or not.
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