Apple Officially Bans DUI Checkpoint Apps

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All the noise made earlier this year about a number of iOS apps that alert drivers to DUI checkpoints got Apple's attention. The apps are now explicitly banned by Apple.

A change in the App Store Review Guidelines was spurred by a letter from four democratic U.S. senators addressing the issue. The senators specifically asked for the removal of apps that provide "a database of DUI checkpoints updated in real-time.

The change in the guidelines is in section 22.8 and reads as follows:

Apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies, or encourage and enable drunk driving, will be rejected.

It seems the new verbiage only applies to applications that only offer ways to highlight and avoid DUI checkpoints. Many of the Apps that offer information on DUI checkpoints also offer a ton of other information on red lights, speed cameras, accidents and other traffic information. It has yet to be seen what the fallout from this change will be for current applications in the App Store, whether they will be removed or must have the DUI information removed.