Apple has today published a press release in which it attempts to defend its strict and often controversial App Store guidelines. The company cites concrete figures.
According to Apple, the App Store "prevented nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions" in 2021. The company says this was made possible through a combination of App Store review, strict in-app payment requirements, and more. These measures, according to Apple, make the App Store "the safest place to find and download apps." The Cupertino-based company explains:
In 2021, Apple protected customers from nearly $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions and prevented over 1.6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates from defrauding users. Apple's efforts to prevent and mitigate fraud on the App Store require continuous monitoring and vigilance by multiple teams. From app review to fraud detection, Apple's ongoing commitment to protecting users from fraudulent app activity demonstrates once again why independent, respected security experts call the App Store the safest place to find and download apps.
Apple App Store: The safest place to download apps
Apple has listed further interesting statistics in the press release:
- The App Review Team has rejected more than 34,500 apps because they contained hidden or undocumented features.
- 157,000 apps were rejected because they were spam, imitations or misleading for users.
- 343,000 apps were rejected because they requested more user data than necessary or incorrectly handled the data already collected.
- Apple systematically tracked down over 94 million reviews and over 170 million ratings and excluded them from publication because they did not meet the moderation standards.
- A further 610,000 reviews were removed after publication due to customer concerns.
- Apple found and blocked over 63,500 illegal apps on piracy stores.
- More than 3.3 million stolen cards were prevented from being used for potentially fraudulent purchases.
- More than 118 million attempted account openings were rejected in 2021 because they showed patterns suggesting fraudulent and abusive activity.
Apple's latest study on the App Store is being closely watched by the authorities and the antitrust authorities. Other studies Apple has conducted recently have included the popularity of third-party apps, the economic impact of the App Store and the benefits of App Store Search Ads. If you would like to read the full press release in German, you can find the whole thing here. (Image: Apple)
