my goal is to give my customers an option to lock their App's Data, so when they give their iPad/iPhone to someone else for an extended period of time, users can't access or accidentally look at confidential data.
[Some Background: It's a medical Application where physicians/staff-members would give iPads to patients. Now the patients are supposed to access some contents, yet shouldn't be able to look at other patients data]
So far, I have a password inside my App. But when a staff-member forgets and wants to reset it, the only thing I can do is "deletion of the whole database". I have a Disclaimer telling people to store their password somewhere, but this is still not the optimal user experience.
Is there anyway I could authenticate the user via his Apple-Password? This way only the person knowing the Devices-Account password can access the data and can always reset the Apple-Password with Apple.
PS: Server-Solutions, like having a User-Password pair with reset-via-mail on a server of mine is out of the question, since it would add to much complexity for the users and in many medical situations the Device shouldn't have access to the web.
Multiple thoughts:
I am not aware of any native public API to authentication using Apple password.
If your app is enterprise app, possibly you can use native private API. I would recommend to disassemble AppStore and check how does it do authentication then
You can also to try to access to some Apple web page which requires authentication and pass to it apple account and password and see what it will return. If it authenticated correctly, then you are fine and you can reset a password.
To make it secure, you will need to ask a user to enter it for a first time, so you can encrypt your encryption keys using authentication material (so you can decrypt encryption key later on).
However, I am not very big fan of this solution, since you can change Apple password and you will be stuck in such case.
Server solution is the best option and it's not that complex. Another option is Forgot password. You ask something what administrator know ("What is your first pet?") and he enters the answer when your application is configured and this answer could be used later to unlock your app.
P.S. And the best solution at the end (which is absolutely shameless self advertisement). A startup which I am part of (SpydrSafe) works on the product which solves exactly your problem. In fact, healthcare is one of the verticals which whom we actively works. If you are interested, contact me (my email is in profile)
if you authenticate the user via apple password, and they forget their apple password, then in order for them to retrieve that password is by reset-via-email .... so either way you are stuck with that dilemma.
As for actually using your apple password, no.
Best way to get what you want is to have the password stored somewhere in real life. Like another computer that the doctors can report to and ask for passwords or just don't forget the password.
My app is a sync solution (imagine dropbox).
The user needs to sign in to access the app's features, and if he does not have any account already created, he can sign up.
The sign up asks for email id verification, and this email id is also used if the user has forgotten his password to send him one.
but Apple has rejected this app saying:
17.2: Apps that require users to share personal information, such as email address and date of birth, in order to function will be rejected
We found that your app requires customers to register with personal information to access non-account-based features, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.
Apps cannot require user registration prior to allowing access to app features and content that are not associated specifically to the user. User registration that requires the sharing of personal information must be optional or tied to account-specific functionality. Additionally, the requested information must be relevant to the features.
Although guideline 11.6 of the App Store Review Guidelines requires an application to make subscription content available to all the iOS devices owned by a single user, it is not appropriate to force user registration to meet this requirement; such user registration must be made optional.
It would be appropriate to make it clear to the user that registering will enable them to access the content from any of their iOS devices, and to provide them a way to register at any time, if they wish to later extend access to additional iOS devices
Please help me solve this. Many apps like dropbox/facebook require login.
I don't get the exact reason why they rejected my app.
Also, please guide about the in app purchase, why registering cannot be mandatory
Asked App Store Review people for clarification on their rejection.
They accepted it. and the app got approved :D
Its on Appstore now :)
I also Faced this kind of Problem and my app also Rejected due to this.And Again I Changed my App flow Like User Registration will be Optional. User can See all the Feature of the app with out Registration by skipping this step.If he want to do something user-specific then you can ask to register such as : (user like,comment,photo upload etc) or else he can use the contents and features which are public.
in Case of in-app Purchase You can Prompt user that if He will Register with your app he can able to use this Content in his all devices.
It would be appropriate to make it clear to the user that registering will enable them to access the content from any of their iOS devices, and to provide them a way to register at any time, if they wish to later extend access to additional iOS devices
Apple does not allow apps that require you to share person information to work, like an e-mail address.
You options are, remove the need for an e-mail address or remove account creation form you app and move it to a website.
It also states that you app is asking to create an account to access the full app and even needs the account or acces features that do not require the user to have an account. You can make those features available with out the account creating you might be able to get thru the review.
The reason apps like Facebook and Dropbox got thru the review proces is because they don't have a register option which is in app only. They redirect to a website.
I recently spoke to an Apple Rep over the phone in regards to an app of mine that was also accused of violating clause 17.2.
I explained to him that the email would be used for password recovery, monitoring transactions within the marketplace, and managing any inappropriate behavior (such as users uploading offensive or copyrighted content). The rep responded, "Sir, the clause states 'Apps that require users to share personal information, such as email address and date of birth, in order to function will be rejected'. I cannot allow you to require your users to submit their emails if its not account-based". He did not seem to understand that the emails are account-based for the very sole purpose of security.
I did mention to him that Instagram and Facebook alike require logins at startup. He simply replied, "Yes but those apps are entirely account-based."
Honestly, I felt he was blindly following Apple's Guidelines ("Because that's what it says we must strictly follow!"). He had little understanding of how social networking apps operate, and even less understanding of the law (specifically the DMCA - on a separate issue). Explaining to them how all that works proves to be futile; they wont budge because they are asked to follow Apple's BROAD Clauses as strictly as they do.
My conclusion: I had to compromise the app's user flow such that the app's registration page can be skipped, and all other functions within its marketplace were locked to non-registered users. It makes no sense.
The sign up asks for email id verification, and this email id is also used if the user has forgotten his password to send him one.
Apps cannot require user registration prior to allowing access to app features and content that are not associated specifically to the user.
It seems to me that the point is that you are asking the user to provide his email address as a step towards the creation of a user account. This is different from what dropbox and other apps do (i.e, you provide your credentials for your dropbox account, which is different from your email address, although it can be the same).
You may either remove altogether email verification, or you could postpone it to a later point when you have made clear to the user that this is required to access private information.
I got the same thing last week and this is Apple's reply:
As for the 17.2 issue, a nickname, avatar, or sharing are not inherent or specific features of those social networks, and thus, the user should not be required to register with those services, or provide you with access to their social network accounts. The user should not be prevented from using your app and service if they do not provide this information.
Instead, it would be appropriate use your own authentication method and give users the option to create a nickname and upload an avatar, independent from those networks.
Moreover, we realize that these social networks may be very popular. However, the popularity of the social network is not an appropriate reason to force a user who has not, or chose not to register and provide their personal information to those services, before they can use your app.
Therefore, we ask that you to include your own authentication mechanism to allow the user the option to register only with you, creating an account with only the information needed and relevant to your app's features.
Best regards,
App Store Review
So in short, you have to provide custom authentication and not just use Facebook. Although I've seen many Apps who do require you to login with Facebook.
Thanks,
James
It happened same for me, although the first version was approved, the second version was rejected for this reason, I added the Skip button at the landing view.
It's all summarized in the last paragraph. Apparently, your application doesn't inform the user (in a clear way) that registering is for syncing and from their reply, it seems that your application is useless without the Sign Up.
If that's the case, you should be more specific why you need the user to register.
On a side note, I personally don't like the applications/websites that force you to register before you see or try anything. I hope your application isn't the same.
we implement in-app purchase, but want to receive some information about user: the user will have an option of preordering some content without payment.so that our servers wouldn't work useless we'd like to force to register.
Can we make some request and learn the user's id, which he uses in AppStore.
or it is prohibited?
I don't have a solid answer for you, and nothing to cite. But I'm almost positive this is not permitted. I'd suggest reading the docs, and doing a bit of research.
You can likely find a way to get the user ID, but it will probably result in the rejection of you app. Apple doesn't like this kind of behavior.
I have been stuck in a strange situation, according to my requirement, I need to track the resellers of my app, i.e. I will be publishing link of my app in the iTunes-Store on 3 or more different sites(The re seller's sites).
According to my promise which I made to these resellers, I will provide a share of my profit.
So here I have to track from which link did the user came to the APP-Store.
Any suggestions or solutions will be Thankful.
I think the only way to do it will be server-side. Links at your resellers should point to your server, where you log the source of link (resellers web page) and redirect request to AppStore. But you'll have no way of knowing, which of this requests ended up with a purchase.
The only way to do this for real is to get them to become iTunes affiliates and provide reports back to you. They should use the iTunes referral to make the sale (they will get a small cut from Apple) -- Apple will report that back to them, and then they can prove to you that they made a sale, and then you pay based on that.
Reserve the right to audit them -- meaning that they will have to show you the report directly from the iTunes affiliate site.
I assume that iTunes actually tells them what they sold, but you would need to check that.
Another idea (which may or may not make sense based on what your app does) is to make personalized versions of your app for each reseller. If there's some way to incorporate a very simple feature that is personalized (and makes sense), then you can upload the same app multiple times and assume all sales are coming from that reseller.
So, for example, if the app were an exercise tracker, and the resellers were gyms -- you could customize the app for each gym and add their schedule and contact info to it. Then, sell the app as an Excerise Tracker for XYZ Gym and let them promote it and get a cut of sales.
Will Apple accept an application that requires a login to an online account the first time it boots? I'd like use this to link the user to an online highscores system for a game and for some analytic purposes.
Yes, there's many, many games that do this already. In fact when you submit your app for testing, there's an optional text field that lets you provide the test engineer with a pre-existing test account name & password.
I'm not sure I like the idea of requiring a login account. Optional logins are fine, but requiring such activity is too much of a hassle or privacy concern for some people.
As a consumer, I like having the option to opt out of signing into such services. I would recommend supporting your customers' prerogative to choose anonymity or privacy over the benefit of being eligible for the high score system.