Resolving Prohibited Applications 2.7.2 Issue in Windows Phone Application Certification Process

 

If you are building a Windows Phone Application especially which deals with Location based Services or Location related information share,then this blogpost might come to your help.

Recently,I submitted one Windows Phone Application titled as "LocateMe" to Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace as a normal procedure of Marketplace of Microsoft, After 2-3 Days I got email as follows :

When I logged into AppHub account, I got one PDF file having detail description of above mail along with complete error details. When I saw that PDF, It was written like :

Since such kind of rejection is very new to me,For day or two I was wondering what to do and resolved so that my application can clear certification.Since comments was clear on the test result like this :

One of my friend Mayur Tendulkar suggested that my application is using Location Service without User Consent or User's permission which indirectly crossing Privacy of the User of that application, In other way its like taking or using User's location without giving him any intimation or notification. This was the issue which my application was doing.

Solution :

I came across this blogpost which exactly states the above problem, Solution suggested there is to create a Custom Page with On/Off Switch which can Enable or Disable Location which will be provided by User of the application.

Somehow I felt it as little extra work in terms of coding and navigation to user.So I given a try to a very simple solution and I am happy that it worked for me and my application came out of this Privacy issue and got certified. I just given a message box like this :

MessageBoxResult result = MessageBox.Show("For Tracking on Map you need to Enable Location,For More Information Read Privacy Statement,Are you sure you want to enable Tracking?", "LocateMe", MessageBoxButton.OKCancel);

                if (result == MessageBoxResult.OK)
                {
                   // Turn On the Location
                }
                else
                {
                    // Turn Off the Location
                }

This saved me from that extra step of navigating to Location Setup Page and Set Reset location and come back to application.This helped me to get consent of user to use Location on his/her device.This allows user to choose to Turn On or Off the location service and does not force the user anyway and does not disclose any location data of user anywhere.

To be on safer side, I added a Privacy Statement Page in Application Bar Menu so that User can know more about in what way and terms the User location which is his/her private data is getting used.This page looks like below :

What I learn from this problem :

Its not always mandatory to have a separate page just for turning On or Off the location but it can just be done by a message box since its all about giving notification to the user and asking his/her permission to use and or share his/her location in any way.

Since I didn't came across any valid or legal solution for this problem,hence I thought I should share my experience with you all, So in future any of you got into such problem, should not be a big issue for your application during the Certification Process of Microsoft Marketplace.

Although in terms of legal aspect, this is not a valid or legal solution which is full proof,however I will claim this only as "work around" to get ride of Prohibited Applications 2.7.2 Issue in Windows Phone Application Certification.If you want More information about 2.7.2 section,I encourage you to go through following MSDN Documentation available on this subject :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh184841%28v=VS.92%29.aspx

With this, I conclude this post, The only intention of this post is to make you aware of this issue and not get lost anywhere like I got in initial go of my application development.This might help you to be extra careful while you are building your app especially location based.So make sure you keep these things in your mind and while building such kinds of apps, think from all aspects and build your own Privacy Statement or Policy according to need of your application.

Well, I recently submitted few apps and in my next post I am talking some interesting things happen last month in my town where me and my User Group friends conducted Windows Phone Training Program, till that time, Just check out my "LocateMe" app and let me know your feedback.Take care and see you soon.

Warning : Above post and solution given came out of my own experience and might not applicable as a general solution to all generic location based applications on Windows Phone Marketplace,Hence use this post as just a guideline and not as a final and/or Legal solution in any way.Only intention of this post is to create awareness about this  Prohibited Applications 2.7.2 Issue in Windows Phone Application Certification Process.

Vikram.