Controversial Change, App Store In The European Union Will Show Developer's Address And Phone Number

JAKARTA Apple will make controversial changes to the App Store for the European Union (EU) in October. This app store will display developer personal data such as addresses and phone numbers.

This change does not come from Apple's policy, but comes from the Digital Service Act (DSA) in the EU. Based on rules for online platforms, Apple is required to display contact information from developers who are considered app traders.

All developers with paid apps will be considered traders by Apple. The reason is, they earn revenue from the App Store, both direct revenue from sales on the App Store, in-app purchases, to revenue from advertising.

With this provision, only developers distribute free and non-advertising applications that do not need to display personal information on their application pages. For paid app developers, address and contact information will be visible in the description column

Especially for individual developers, the data displayed must be more. The App Store will display home address information, PO Box, email address, and phone number. These four informations will also be added to the description section of the application.

Many developers do not like this rule because many of them do not have an address or office phone number. Not a few are forced to provide personal data so that their safety can also be threatened.

However, they have no choice but to comply. All developers are required to provide the information requested by Apple. If they do not comply with this rule, their app will be removed from the EU App Store starting February 17 next year.