App Store rules

These rules come from the Developer Terms, which you accept before publishing, and from the checks Storeware runs on every listing and release. They are the same for every app.

What your app may do with a shop's dataCopy Anchor Link

• Reach only what the merchant approved, and only while your app is installed.
• Use it to do what your listing says the app does, for that merchant, and for nothing else.
• Never sell, rent or share a merchant's data or their customers' data, and never combine one merchant's data with another's.
• When a merchant uninstalls your app, or Storeware tells you a customer asked to be erased, delete what you hold about them within 30 days, unless the law requires you to keep it. The events that tell you are in Webhooks.
• Keep it secure, and tell Storeware within 72 hours if somebody reached it who should not have.
• An app that reads customers, orders, companies, subscriptions or returns must declare a [privacy] url in its manifest, where those requests are sent.
• Ask only for what the app needs. A reviewer can turn a release down because it asks for more than it uses.

What a listing must sayCopy Anchor Link

Your listing must describe, accurately, what your app does, what it costs and what it reaches. It must name a privacy policy and a way for merchants to reach you, and you must answer them. Before it can be published it needs a tagline, a description of at least 80 characters, an icon, a category, and a support link or support email.

What a listing may sayCopy Anchor Link

The name, tagline, description, links, panel titles and tool descriptions are checked whenever they change. Some things hide a listing straight away:

• a link that is not a real address, points at a bare IP address, or goes through a link shortener such as bit.ly, which hides where it leads;
• a name that presents the listing as Storeware's own.

The rest is read by an automated reviewer, which hides a listing that is clearly:

• spam: stuffed with keywords, repeated promotion or text unrelated to the app;
• a scam: promises of payment, guarantees that cannot be true, or asking for credentials or money;
• a harmful link: a link meant to deceive or harm;
• impersonation: claiming to be Storeware, a well known brand or another developer;
• adult, hateful or harassing content;
• illegal goods or services;
• misleading: claims that plainly contradict what the app is, or instructions aimed at an AI model, such as "ignore previous instructions". Tool descriptions are read into the merchant's assistant, so this matters most there.

A hidden listing cannot be seen or installed by new shops; shops that already have the app are not affected. The Developer page says what was found. Change the words, and the listing is checked again within minutes. A person at Storeware can override any automated finding, either way.

What a review looks atCopy Anchor Link

A release that reaches further than the one merchants have, and every public listing, is read by a person. Before that, the automated checks in Your App Store listing run; run them yourself with app preflight. A reviewer approves, asks for changes, or turns it down, always saying what to change, for one of these reasons:

• misleading
• incomplete
• does not work
• privacy
• asks for more than it needs
• quality
• a duplicate of another app
• against these rules

You answer in the conversation on your app's Reviews page, and release or edit again. Storeware aims to decide every review within 48 hours.

Charging merchantsCopy Anchor Link

When a merchant pays for your app, they pay Storeware on their Storeware bill, and Storeware pays you what they paid less tax and Stripe's costs. Storeware takes no share. How plans and charges work is in Charging merchants.

RatingsCopy Anchor Link

A rating a merchant was paid or rewarded for is removed when disputed. The rest of the rating rules, including who may rate and how disputes work, are in Your App Store listing.

If Storeware pauses or removes an appCopy Anchor Link

Storeware may decline, hide or remove an app that breaks these rules, misleads merchants, or puts a shop or its customers at risk. Where it can, Storeware tells you why first and gives you time to fix it. Where waiting would put a shop or its customers at risk, it pauses the app at once.

A paused app's tokens stop working and it is sent no events until it is running again; nothing is deleted. The Developer page shows you the reason. What merchants are told is in Hearing from merchants. An app paused in the last 90 days cannot hold the Built for Storeware badge.

To ask about a decision, answer in the review's conversation, or write to hi@storeware.ai.