Apple to Require Consent for Third-Party AI Data Sharing
An upcoming Apple App Store update, set for November 2025, will require apps to obtain explicit user consent before sharing data with third-party AI services. According to developer analysis, apps that fail to comply with the new privacy-focused guidelines will face rejection from the App Store.
- This policy is a direct update to Apple's App Review Guideline 5.1.2(i), which has long required user consent for data sharing, but now explicitly adds the phrase "including with third-party AI" to specify the requirement for artificial intelligence services. - The rule change comes as Apple is reportedly developing an AI-enhanced Siri for a 2026 release, which may utilize third-party technology like Google's Gemini, positioning this policy as a way for Apple to regulate competitors' data practices while preparing its own AI features. - This update is part of a larger trend of privacy-focused changes from Apple, most notably the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework launched with iOS 14.5 in April 2021, which requires apps to get explicit user permission to track them across other apps and websites. - Since ATT was introduced, user opt-in rates for tracking have been low; by some estimates, the share of trackable Apple users in the U.S. dropped from over 73% to under 18%, significantly impacting the targeted advertising market and causing major revenue shifts for companies like Meta. - The definition of "third-party AI" is intentionally broad, applying not just to large language models (like GPT or Claude) but also to any external machine learning systems used for features like recommendation engines, image analysis, or personalization. - Developers will now need to go beyond general privacy policies and implement specific, in-context consent requests that name the AI provider (e.g., OpenAI, Google) and explain the purpose of the data sharing before any data is transmitted. - Non-compliant apps face removal from the App Store and developers risk expulsion from the Apple Developer Program, signaling a strict enforcement stance similar to other privacy rules. - The policy will impact a wide range of popular app features, including AI-powered chatbots, photo apps that use cloud-based AI for editing or filtering, and any app that sends user data to an external service for personalized recommendations or content generation.
