Apple Mistakenly Sends Ad Spend and Install Reports to the Wrong Developers: REPORT

Apple reportedly sent as spend information and install reports to the wrong app developers, as a number of people have reported the mistake on social media.

According to a new report from TechCrunch, developers who use the Search Ads Basic program get a monthly report detailing how much they’ve spent on ads and how many installs they achieved as a result. These very same reports were apparently sent to the incorrect recipients.

“The issue — which appears specific right now to developers using Search Ads Basic, pay-per-install ads that appear as promoted apps when people search on the App Store  — was raised on Twitter by a number of those affected, including prominent developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who posted a screenshot of an email that summarized January’s ad spend and install data another developer’s two apps,” reads the report. “Several others replied noting the same issue, listing more developers and random apps.”

The report notes that Search Ads Basics works so that app developers only pay out advertisement costs if a user installs said app. The service includes suggestions on how much a developer should spend on ads using historical data pulled from the App Store as a basis. The services uses App Store trends to target the ideal audience, informing the developer of the ideal amount of money to spend.

While today’s mistake doesn’t necessarily have a significant impact on the recipients of the reports, the developers who the emails were intended for certainly reserve the right to be upset that their confidential ad spend and install figures were distributed to other people.

“It isn’t clear just how many are being affected by the email glitch — or why — but the incidents are numerous enough for the problem to be visible on Twitter,” notes TechCrunch. “By extension of that, the issue could expose the private data belonging to a sizable number of businesses and developers whose use Apple’s App Store ad products.”

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