What you need to know
- Apple says that nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions were stopped in 2021.
- The App Store also prevents 1.6 million risky and untrustworthy apps and app updates.
While Apple has faced a lot of scrutiny over its tight grip on the App Store, there are some benefits to how Apple handles its App Store.
In a press release (opens in new tab) Apple has stated that nearly 1.5 billion — with a "b" — fraudulent transactions on the App Store were stopped in 2021 alone.
" In 2021, Apple protected customers from nearly $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions and stopped over 1.6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates from defrauding users."
The App Review process uses both computer automation and human manual reviews to approve apps and app updates in a process that Apple calls "multi-layered." It's not just about stopping the transactions but also stopping harmful apps from appearing on the App Store in the first place. Over 340,000 apps were rejected last year for privacy violations along.
It's more than just monitoring the apps that make it on the App Store; Apple also released some figures concerning App Store reviews and ratings, which users and developers depend on to make decisions.
"With more than 1 billion ratings and reviews processed throughout 2021, Apple systematically detected and blocked over 94 million reviews and over 170 million ratings from publication for failing to meet moderation standards. An additional 610,000 reviews were also removed after publication based on customer concern submissions and additional human evaluation."
Apple also noted that it terminated over 800,000 developer accounts in 2021 over fraud concerns and rejected the application on more than 150,000 accounts as well.
