Guideline 5.1.1 - Legal - Privacy - Data Collection and Storage

Hello,
We have developed an app iOS and Apple reject the second update of app (categorie NEWS) for this motivation:

We still noticed that your app requires users to
register or log in to access features that are not account-based.

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, please revise your app to let users freely access your app’s non account-based features.

Apps may not require users to enter personal information to function, except when directly relevant to the core functionality of the app or required by law.

You should allow users to freely access your app’s non account-based features.
For example, an e-commerce app should let users browse store offerings and other features that are not account-based before being asked to register, or a restaurant app should allow users to explore the menu before placing an order.
Registration must then only be required for account-specific features, such as saving items for future reference or placing an order.


But I would to like answer to Apple with this motivation:
"The App requires to create an user account to specify the Country Edition of interest to manage delivery of the correct user magazine and Country-specific contents. Moreover we need to recognize email domains provided by the account to deliver further contents reserved to the employees (customer) worldwid"

Thank you of the support.
  • What if the App's registration is just to onboard users on another system? "Account creation" vs "Registration" is something that may need clarification

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Replies

I have the same and I only ask first name. This while my app functionality needs it as there are doctor reports needed. This is getting to much!
I think the hard part about this is they don't give guidance on how to get around 5.1.1 - and it's arbitrary. So Apple can decide that (in your case) the geolocation saving / region selection to deliver magazines "Doesn't require account access" Even if the account is used to manage magazines.

There are also not good examples of what is / is not covered by this. So in essence, you're at the whims of apple for the business decisions around your app. Good luck!
  • i also have same signed up first name and last name and the review guy keep returning same message and reject like 6 times. very hard to communicate with the review apple officer.

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My app was randomly rejected for this reason on a recent version. That version did not change the functionality around signing up or feature restriction what-so-ever. It only had bug fixes in it. Every single version previous to that had the exact same functionality. This rule is obviously very arbitrary and up to the reviewer to decide that a feature "doesn't require account access." Apple needs to clearly define this rule, and give that definition to their reviewers so that they are reviewing apps consistently. When apps are not reviewed consistently, the whole purpose of the app review becomes pointless. Wether or not an app gets approved mainly depends on WHO reviews your app, and not on the functionality of the app.
I have the same issues. We need an additional names and student types (like high school or university). Did anyone had solution for this.

Hello! I have the same issue recently, and I want to know if you found a solution, let me know if you can help me.

regards.

Hello I have the same pb, apple rejects our app because we ask for registration or log in. It looks totally arbitrary as a week before they accepted our app, and the new release was only to fix some little bugs. Can we argue that we use registration and log in to allow multi access devices (web, android...) to our users? Has anyone found a solution that would avoid the rejection of our app ?

I have the same problem now as well, since it is a small app for measuring some angles on the body, I save that data and the user - mostly a physiotherapist - can track the progress. Name, Birthdate and gender are being stored in iCloud since the app can be used on iPhone and iPad. The reviewer is pissing me off since he also has a problem with just one device: iPad Air, 5th generation, all others seem fine.

It is getting more and more cumbersome to navigate through that minefield and now we have to do DSA as well...