Ondrej Holzman In iOS 7.1, Apple is responding to user complaints and lawsuits it has faced in recent months, and in-app purchases will display a warning about a 15-minute window during which additional content can be purchased without the need to enter a password…
In mid-January, Apple made a deal with the US Federal Trade Commission to compensate injured parents whose children unknowingly purchased in-app content without knowing they were spending real money.
V iOS 7.1 now, after the first purchase in the application, a window pops up, notifying the user that for the next 15 minutes it will be possible to continue shopping without the need to enter a password. (A Czech translation of this warning is still missing in iOS 7.1.) The user either agrees to it or can go to Settings, where by turning on the restriction on in-app purchases, the need to enter a password will be activated.
A fifteen-minute delay before you have to re-enter your password is nothing new in the App Store. On the contrary, it has been around since 2008, when the App Store was launched, but many argued that they did not know about this window of time, and thus complained about unwanted purchases to Apple en masse.
Finally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also intervened, according to which it was really too easy for children to make in-app purchases without the need to know the access data, and therefore Apple was forced to draw more attention to the behavior of the App Store. In addition, the Californian company will pay over $32 million to the parents.
There has also been speculation that Apple will make more significant changes, perhaps even removing the 31-minute window entirely, by March 15, when the App Store's behavior must change under the FTC settlement, but it's possible that the notification in iOS 7.1 will be enough of a measure .
