Apple strengthens App Store rules on AI nudification and hidden features

Apple updated its App Review Guidelines on October 16, and two changes matter. Guideline 1.2 now explicitly lists nonconsensual intimate imagery, "including imagery generated using AI tools," as content apps must proactively prevent and remove. Developers who "fail to implement adequate safeguards" or ignore violations after notice risk removal from the App Store.

The second change is new Guideline 2.5.19, aimed at bait-and-switch apps. It bans "hidden, dormant, or undocumented features," and says hiding them through code obfuscation is grounds for removal and termination of the developer account.

Apple supplies its own enforcement figures: last year it prevented over 150K apps with safety issues from reaching customers and terminated over 193K developer accounts for fraud and abuse.

The context, per 9to5Mac: the Tech Transparency Project found dozens of "nudify" apps on the store in January, San Francisco officials ordered Apple in July to remove eight such apps, and a 9to5Mac investigation found gambling apps that revealed betting only to Brazilian IP addresses. Apple also privately warned xAI that Grok could be removed.

My take: the rule is clear, the enforcement is not. Apple says nudification apps were already prohibited, which makes this a restatement of a ban that dozens of apps apparently walked past. The announcement does not say how reviewers will detect obfuscated code, or what counts as a "timely" response to a report. A rule is a hypothesis. The next review cycle is the experiment.