Overview

You received an app rejection from Apple citing Guideline 5.1.1, more specifically related to your app requesting the user’s consent to access their location information. The error message is similar to:

Guideline 5.1.1 – Legal – Privacy – Data Collection and Storage

We noticed that your app requests the user’s consent to access the location, but doesn’t sufficiently explain the use of the location in the purpose string.

To help users make informed decisions about how their data is used, all permission request alerts need to specify how your app will use the requested information. 

Next Steps

Please revise the relevant purpose string in your app’s Info.plist file to specify why your app needs access to the user’s location. Make sure the purpose string includes an example of how the user’s data will be used.

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Solution

This guideline error appears because your app asks to use location information without clarifying explicitly why is the information needed and how will it be used by the app in the applicable purpose string. You can read the complete guideline regarding Data Collection and Storage in Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines article, under section 5.1.1.

When your application requests the location permission, a message is shown to the app user, to inform them why it’s required and how it will be used, like in this screenshot:

To change this message and clearly specify why is the location permission used as part of the application’s functionality, you can use the Client Translations Panel. Follow these steps:

• Log onto the CMS Partner Dashboard 
• Navigate to My Client’s View -> Translations -> Mobile Apps
• Select the app’s language in the “Available Translatable Languages” select menu, on the right side of the screen. 

• Search for the string “NSLocation” In the Search Bar, after the results load, open the results by clicking the Common header.

• You should find multiple results, all these messages have to be customized.

• Set a meaningful description under the Translation field about the use of the location data for your application. You should make sure to end this description with the disclaimer phrase “Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.” to avoid another rejection. An acceptable description would be, for example: We use your location to send you Push Notifications with special, relevant information when you are near our restaurant. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
  
  Important: This translation will apply to all your clients’ apps that make use of the corresponding feature. Thus the description has to be as generic as possible. Bear in mind that all permission request alerts in your app should specify how your app will use the requested feature
• Republish the app

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Testing

Apple will review your app again, if the usage text provided is explicit and clearly states how will the location data be used, it shouldn’t be rejected by the 5.1.1 guideline. Thus, unless there’s some other rejection reason, your iOS app will be approved and published on the Apple Store.

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