UK Government Publishes New Code of Practice for App Store Operators and App Developers
On December 9, 2022, the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) published a voluntary Code of Practice for App Store Operators and App Developers.
The Code sets out eight core principles to be followed by in-scope entities and is intended to help protect end users from malicious and poorly designed apps by setting minimum security and privacy requirements. There will therefore be a degree of overlap between compliance with the Code and compliance with existing legal obligations.
There will be a nine-month period for in-scope stakeholders to adhere to the Code. DCMS has stated that its initial focus is on App Store Operators, and that it will commence meetings with these stakeholders beginning in early 2023 to assess whether they have started to enact changes to their processes.