Every year, Apple releases a new report that talks about the security measures and protections built into the App Store. Thanks to their App Store policies, in 2021 the App Store blocked nearly $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions. They also managed to block over 1.6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates from defrauding users.
Some of the various measures include App Review, removing illegitimate ratings and reviews, preventing developer accounts fraud and preventing payment and credit card fraud.
Every app that is submitted to the App Store goes through Apple’s App Review process. It is a multi-layered process that combines computer automation with manual human review. According to Apple in 2021 they achieved the following:
- Over 835,000 problematic new apps, and an additional 805,000 app updates, were rejected or removed
- Over 34,500 apps were rejected for containing hidden or undocumented features
- Over 157,000 apps were rejected because they were found to be spam, copycats, or misleading to users
- Over 155,000 apps were removed from the App Store for trying to circumvent App Review by changing the app’s behaviour after it was approved
- Over 343,000 apps rejected for requesting more user data than necessary or mishandling collected data.
Fraudulent ratings and reviews were another area of focus for the App Store. Apple detected and removed 94 million reviews and over 170 million ratings from publication for failing to meet moderation standards. Additionally, 610,000 reviews were also removed after publication based on customer concern submissions.
For developer account fraud, Apple terminated over 802,000 accounts in 2021, and for customer accounts associated with fraudulent and abusive activity, Apple deactivated over 170 million accounts in 2021. Lastly, Apple prevented more than 3.3 million stolen cards from being used to make potentially fraudulent purchases, and banned nearly 600,000 accounts from transacting again.