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Apple Implements Geoblocking To Restrict App Access
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Relevance Score
Apple has developed an on-device system called "countryd" (first reported in 2023) to determine users' locations from GPS, Wi‑Fi router country codes, and SIM data, Wired reports. After the EU Digital Markets Act took effect in 2024 Apple restricted third-party app‑store access to devices physically in the EU, and in January 2025 added App Store terms allowing IP-based geoblocking, coinciding with US removal of ByteDance apps.
