Apple rejecting updates for App Tracking Transparency

PaulH

I submitted updates to four iOS games to Apple. None use advertising networks or contain the ads plugin, or do any user tracking. One game update was accepted, but the other three were rejected for not prompting the user to grant permission to track them:

We're looking forward to completing our review, but we need more information to continue. Your app uses the AppTrackingTransparency framework, but we are unable to locate the App Tracking Transparency permission request when reviewed on iOS 16.1.

One one of the games that was rejected I left the "Explain why you want to track the user" entry in the Require plugin blank, and in another I explained that the game is built on a platform that supports ad networks that do user tracking, but that this app doesn't use them or do any user tracking.

I built these updates with Gideros 2021.8. I've just updated to 2022.9, thinking there might be some new options in the Require plugin relating to AppTrackingTransparency, but I don't see anything that seems relevant. I thought I might just resubmit with a build from the current version. I've responded to the rejections saying the games in question don't do any user tracking, but I'm assuming there's something they're detecting in the app package that indicates that they do. I'm waiting to hear back.

Has anyone else had this issue? Any ideas?

Paul

PaulH

Update: I got a reply for my response to one of the rejected apps:

Since App Tracking Transparency is only intended to be used by apps requesting authorization to track, it would be appropriate to disable App Tracking Transparency before resubmitting your app for review.

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, remove any App Tracking Transparency-related keys in your app's info.plist and from localized string files.

In addition to removing these keys, you may also choose to fully remove other references to the AppTrackingTransparency framework from your app.

It appears the presence of the NSUserTrackingUsageDescription entry in the (project name)-info.plist file, even if empty, may alert reviewers to look for the user tracking permission request. I'll try manually removing that entry from the exported project and resubmitting.

But perhaps the framework should even be removed. I'll see what happens.

PaulH

All good now. It seems that Gideros includes the app tracking privacy text element in the info.plist file in exported Apple projects, and Apple reviewers are now expecting to see apps request permissions if that entry is in the file, even if it's blank. Removing the entry from info.plist solves it.

Ideally Gideros would omit the entry from the info.plist file if it's left blank, but it's simple enough to remove it before archiving to submit a build for the store.

Paul

hgy29

I think this should solve the issue: https://github.com/gideros/gideros/commit/f2d19ed1cb2676e907e30468c90bedae30fedb6c

PaulH

Thanks!