Se você ainda não leu a carta aberta do Eric Peterson para o Steve Jobs sobre a Seção 3.3.9 do “iPhone Developer Agreement”, vale a pena dar uma olhada:

Ela estabelece o banimento de aplicações de coleta de dados de terceiros, ou seja, lá se vai a possibilidade da melhoria de processos e da compreensão do comportamento dos visitantes.

Os desenvolvedores de aplicações somente poderão utilizar as ferramentas de programação da Apple, e por não serem compatíveis, acabam impossibilitando o funcionamento da maioria das ferramentas de Web Analytics hoje disponíveis no mercado, como: Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics, Unica, Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics, entre outras…

Abaixo o texto original da polêmica Seção 3.3.9:

“3.3.9 The following requirements apply to You and Your Application’s use, collection, processing, maintenance, uploading, syncing, storage, transmission, sharing and disclosure of User Data:

• All use of User Data collected or obtained through an Application must be limited to the same purpose as necessary to provide services or functionality for such Application. For example, the use of User Data collected on and used in a social networking Application could be used for the same purpose on the website version of that Application; however, the use of location-based User Data for enabling targeted advertising in an Application is prohibited unless targeted advertising is the purpose of such Application (e.g., a geo-location coupon application).
• You may only provide or disclose User Data to third parties as necessary for providing services or functionality for the Application that collected the User Data, and then only if You receive express user consent. For example, if Your Application would like to post a message from a user to a third party social networking site, then You may only share the message if the user has explicitly indicated an intention to share it by clicking or selecting a button or checking a box that clearly explains how the message will be shared.
• Notwithstanding anything else in this Agreement, Device Data may not be provided or disclosed to a third party without Apple’s prior written consent. Accordingly, the use of third party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited.
• You must provide information to users regarding Your use and/or Transmission of User Data and explain how Your Application will use User Data, e.g., by providing information in the App Store marketing text that accompanies Your Application on the App Store, by adding an About box within Your Application, or by adding a link to Your privacy policy on Your website.
• You and the Application must take appropriate steps to protect any User Data from unauthorized disclosure or access. If a user ceases to consent to Your use and/or Transmission of User Data, You must promptly cease all such use and/or Transmission and destroy any such information from Your records (except to the limited extent necessary for Your Application back- ups and record-keeping or as otherwise prohibited by law).”

Em função disso, a Apple, motivada pela batalha travada com outros fabricantes de celulares, em especial os que usam o sistema Android do Google, corre o risco de que os desenvolvedores passem a escrever seus aplicativos para outras plataformas.

É uma pena! Esperamos que a Apple mude sua maneira de pensar neste caso e volte atrás.

Até o próximo post!