Guideline 5.1.1: permission pop-ups, purpose strings and App Privacy labels
Apple's 5.1.1 privacy messages cover separate areas, and each is fixed in a different place. Find yours first.
Apple's words
“Guideline 5.1.1(iv) - Legal - Privacy - Data Collection and Storage”
“Ensure your purpose strings clearly and completely describe your use of the data.”
“must respect the user's permission settings and not attempt to manipulate, trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access.”
What it means
Purpose strings are the reasons in Apple's permission pop-ups. Apple wants “one brief, complete sentence in active voice”; its weak example is “To use location.” Pop-ups from add-on packages count too.
A screen of your own before the pop-up must not push people to say yes. Apple also asks you to “provide alternative solutions for users who don't grant consent.”
App Privacy labels describe the data you and your partners collect. They show on your listing, so they must match the app.
The privacy manifest is a file in the app listing its data and “required reason API” use. Without those reasons, App Store Connect turns the build away.
What caused it for us
1 rejection, 1 of our apps (June 2026): the screen before our camera pop-up had an “Allow camera” button.
Apple asked for words like Continue or Next on that button, and wrote: “The user should always proceed to the permission request after the message.”
From about 20 of our own rejections across 8 apps. A guide to what to check first, not a rate for everyone.
What to check first
- Match Apple's message to one of the areas above.
- Read each purpose string. Does it say, in one full sentence, what the app does with the data?
- Look at any screen before a pop-up. Does its button say Allow, or can people skip the pop-up?
- Say no to each permission and check that the rest of the app still works.
- Match App Privacy to the data you or your partners keep after answering a request.
Kept for the paid guide
These three parts are in the paid guide only:
- The exact App Store Connect clicks. Where the App Privacy answers are edited and published, and which fixes need a new build.
- The prompt to paste into your AI builder. A prompt that checks each purpose string, each screen before a pop-up and the manifest in the build you sent.
- The reply to Apple. A reply with one line per fix, so the reviewer can find each change.