Data sources & policy

Where the numbers come from.

Everything on this site is built from Apple's public endpoints and our own daily observations. This page records how we collect, what we republish, and how to reach us if something here affects your rights.

Data collection

We collect app metadata (name, seller, release date, rating counts) exclusively from Apple's public iTunes Search/Lookup API and public RSS feeds, snapshotted daily. We do not scrape App Store web pages. Rating-count time series shown here are our own observations, recorded and timestamped by us; Apple does not distribute historical series. Every velocity claim cites the two timestamps that define its interval.

Third-party rights

App names, icons, screenshots, and listing text are the property of their respective developers and are referenced for the purpose of editorial commentary only. Every app page links back to the app's App Store listing. We quote App Store listing text in short excerpts with attribution, and we do not republish user reviews in full: review excerpts, where used, are limited to short attributed quotations inside our own analysis. We do not redistribute Apple catalog data in bulk, and we do not sell raw data — only our own observations and analysis.

Editorial limits

Entries record observations about apps, not verdicts about people or companies. We do not make claims about a developer's business conduct, and we do not state or imply fraud. When we attribute growth to a marketing channel or user-generated content, the attribution is probabilistic and the evidence is listed.

URL permanence

The public record has three URL layers. Their different jobs determine what remains fixed and what can change with an edition.

L0 · permanent record

Calls, corrections, methodology versions, and this policy remain at their original addresses. They are not silently deleted.

L1 · grow-only archive

App and niche pages remain available once published. New editions can add pages to these archives; they do not remove earlier ones.

L2 · edition contents

Rankings and movers describe the edition named in the header. Their rows can change when a new measured edition is published, while their section addresses stay stable. Rankings displays separate sections for each app-age cohort bucket rather than a single mixed table. An edition is published only from a fully finalized nightly collection that measured its entire work list. If a nightly collection does not finish before the next scheduled run, that night's edition is never back-filled later.

Removal requests and corrections

If you are a rights holder and believe content here affects your rights, or if you find a factual error, contact us at contact@curvespotter.com. We aim to respond within five business days. Corrections are appended with timestamps, never silently edited.

Affiliation

CurveSpotter is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc. Apple and the App Store are trademarks of Apple Inc.