Today, I am facing the same issue with my HN reader app - HackerNewsX [2] Using search feature reviewer found stories containing COVID keyword and flagged app as a breach of 'Guideline 5.1.1 - Legal - Privacy - Data Collection and Storage' [3]
> Per section 5.1.1 (ix) of the App Store Review Guidelines, apps that provide services or collect sensitive user information in highly-regulated fields, such as healthcare, should be submitted by a legal entity that provides these services, and not by an individual developer.
Please advise how I can negotiate with Apple and resolve this matter.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-apple-coronavirus-apps-health-organizations-who-cdc-misinformation-2020-3
[2] https://apps.apple.com/app/hackernewsx/id1507756607
[3] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#data-collection-and-storage
Negotiate? They give you a contract, you either accept or deny signing that contract. If you sign it, you have to follow their rules and practices (some of which are not documented). If you don't, then you need to start focusing on a different ecosystem.
If you do sign the contract, and get flagged for the wrong reasons, all you can do is ask them nicely to make an exception for you, or ask for another reviewer. Failing that, there isn't much you can do unless you're a big corp.
I used to be doggedly pro-app store only with Apple as the gatekeeper (Google too for their ecosystem). But as more and more stories like this continue to appear, it's beyond obvious to me there needs to be a choice for alternatives to the app store to getting apps and if people want to "risk" getting content from other providers there should be a path to do so.
Parlor is another recent one that no matter your opinion of them, booting an app solely for political content is beyond dangerous. If you think Parlor got booted for inciting violence, far worse was going on in Facebook and Twitter yet only Parlor got booted - it was purely political.
In my case I marked a certain group of comics hidden unless a toggle was enabled in settings which was enough to get it through review. Maybe you could do something similar and filter out specific tokens from the search query unless an option is enabled?