FR: Can NSUserTrackingUsageDescription be removed for GoogleAppMeasurement in FirebaseAnalytics.

[umtblbl]

Feature proposal

Ability to optionally remove the NSUserTrackingUsageDescription and IDFA usage request for GoogleAppMeasurement within FirebaseAnalytics, thereby increasing compliance with Apple guidelines for child category applications.

• Firebase Component: Google Analytics for Firebase

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Hi, we are using the "7.7.0" version of FirebaseAnalytics with CocoaPods for our iOS application. As follows;

pod 'Firebase / Analytics', '~> 7.7.0'

Since we are developing applications for children, we received the following reject message in our latest application update for the App Store.

• Your app implements the App Tracking Transparency framework, which is used when apps collect data about users and share it with third-parties for tracking purposes. Since Kids Category apps are not allowed to collect, transmit or share identifiable information with third-parties, you should not implement App Tracking Transparency in your app.

We do not use AppTrackingTransparency in our project, but we made the following query in the Project file to determine which library uses it;

grep -r NSUserTrackingUsageDescription .

We noticed that the findings could be within GoogleAppMeasurement as follows;

Binary file ./Pods/GoogleAppMeasurement/Frameworks/GoogleAppMeasurement.xcframework/ios-arm64_i386_x86_64-simulator/GoogleAppMeasurement.framework/GoogleAppMeasurement matches
Binary file ./Pods/GoogleAppMeasurement/Frameworks/GoogleAppMeasurement.xcframework/ios-arm64_armv7/GoogleAppMeasurement.framework/GoogleAppMeasurement matches

We have not made a separate addition for GoogleAppMeasurement within the pod. It is included in the project from within FirebaseAnalytics as follows.

FirebaseAnalytics (7.7.0):
    - FirebaseCore (~> 7.0)
    - FirebaseInstallations (~> 7.0)
    - GoogleAppMeasurement (= 7.7.0)
    - GoogleUtilities / AppDelegateSwizzler (~> 7.0)
    - GoogleUtilities / MethodSwizzler (~> 7.0)
    - GoogleUtilities / Network (~> 7.0)
    - "GoogleUtilities / NSData + zlib (~> 7.0)"

Do you have any solution suggestions for this situation? For example, is there a version of FirebaseAnalytics not included in GoogleAppMeasurement? Or can we remove the use of AppTrackingTransparency for GoogleAppMeasurement or add a feature like this?

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[KazukiTanaka]

We are developing an app for kids.
We was also rejected with the same message.

[sc0rch]

We has the same problem, please address.

[ryanwilson]

Hey folks - thanks for the reports. This is top of mind for us and we'll update this thread today with more details. Sorry for trouble caused.

[AlexNay-iOS]

We've faced the same problem... Look forward for solution

[mobilepm]

We were also rejected from the app store because we are a kids app using Firebase Analytics (even with IDFA, IDFV, and personalized advertising disabled following https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/configure-data-collection?platform=ios#disable_idfa_collection). Apple said they detected NSUserTrackingUsageDescription present in -[APMIdentity retrieveAdTrackingConsentStatus].

We will have to remove Firebase if this is not resolved.

[morganchen12]

@ryanwilson reminder to update this thread--looks like the fix is going out in M91, which is our next release and should be out soon.

[jkb0o]

we are facing the same issue. got rejected five times with different configurations. Are there any workarounds? Maybe a way to compile ios framework without GoogleAppMeasurement?

[paulb777]

Firebase 7.8.0 has now published to CocoaPods and should fix this issue.

[paulb777]

Note this fix won't be available in the Carthage distribution because of its xcframework limitations. The workaround is to use the zip distribution.

[jbweimar]

I just resubmitted an app with version 7.8.0 and I'm still getting flagged:

"Your app implements the App Tracking Transparency framework, which is used when apps collect data about users and share it with third-parties for tracking purposes. Since Kids Category apps are not allowed to collect, transmit or share identifiable information with third-parties, you should not implement App Tracking Transparency in your app."

When asking for clarification from Apple on the previous (similar) rejection they added:

"Regarding Guideline 1.3 - Safety - Kids Category, we noticed that your Kids Category app includes the specific class -[APMIdentity retrieveAdTrackingConsentStatus]."

I opened my binary in Hopper and indeed found no reference to retrieveAdTrackingConsentStatus. Maybe they're flagging on other methods, too?

[jbweimar]

Hey @paulb777,

I just got a response from Apple and they said the following:

"At this time, the concern regarding App Transparency code use is associated with -[APMIdentity updateIdentifiers], wherein the ATTrackingManager class is accessed dynamically, and here and elsewhere within that SDK are methods for that class also accessed dynamically. It would be appropriate to remove the SDK, update or otherwise revise it to only use the App Transparency APIs if intended for use, and without any obfuscation of the use if maintained."

We are only using analytics and no other parts of the Firebase SDK. Is there anything I can still do to prevent this from being flagged?

Thanks!

[paulb777]

Some more recent updates at #7736