Apple 'Records Every Tap' in App Store to Filter New Personalized Recommendations Feature - MacRumors

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Apple 'Records Every Tap' in App Store to Filter New Personalized Recommendations Feature

Wednesday June 17, 2026 6:27 am PDT by Tim Hardwick<br>Last week, Apple introduced a new discovery feature for the App Store called Personalized Collections, or app recommendations based on individual interests and behavior. Apple pitched the announcement as another way for developers to have their app discovered, but there has already been some pushback from a privacy perspective.

App Store user analytics collected by Apple (Image: Mysk)

The new tailored recommendations can appear on the Apps, Games, and Search tabs, and evolve over time based on a user's app usage and downloads. How Apple does this is through analytics data, but the extent of the information being captured by the company has set off warning sirens amongst some cybersecurity researchers.

Security researchers Mysk say that Apple logs "every tap" in the App Store that a user inputs in order to put together the recommendations. Quoting from a post shared on X (Twitter):

"Now Apple is putting the extensive identifiable analytics they collect in the App Store in action. They record every tap and there's no way to turn it off. They can even calculate your typing speed."

The post was accompanied by the above screenshot. "This is what the App Store sends to Apple when I searched for 'Tim cook,'" said one of the researchers. Responding to a reply, Mysk noted that the screenshot wasn't showing search results, but extensive analytics. "If you don't like Apple Music privacy options, you can stream music from Spotify, but where else can you download apps on the iPhone?" they added.

Mysk said the analytics in the screenshot were included in the personal data dump that individual users can request from Apple via privacy.apple.com.

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Is capturing everything you do in the App Store app an intrusion of privacy? Opinions will differ. But there's an argument to be made for Personalized Collections to be opt-in, rather than the all-in feature Apple has rolled out. Let us know your opinions in the comments.

Tags: App Store, Apple Privacy

[ 106 comments ]

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Top Rated Comments

CarAnalogy<br>23 hours ago at 06:30 am

They log every keystroke in the App Store, yet they still mangle every sentence I type with autocorrect enabled?

Glad to see their priorities are in place.

Personally I don't care because I avoid the App Store as much as possible. It's just one giant ad. Everything they said about improving software distribution when it was first announced has come full circle.

The App Store is now full of garbage and it's intentionally difficult to find what you want due to all the ads and scams.<br>Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)

dominiongamma<br>23 hours ago at 06:29 am

So much for privacy with Apple.<br>Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)

stark93<br>23 hours ago at 06:30 am

Don’t like that…<br>Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

vertsix<br>23 hours ago at 06:30 am

Uh oh Applebros. This isn't looking good.<br>Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

UliBaer<br>23 hours ago at 06:31 am

...and I thought...