Apple shared a new report explaining how it took steps to ensure App Store users did not encounter dangerous applications. The company claims it prevented “nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions” by disallowing over 1.6 million apps and updates from being listed on the App Store. Although impressive, the report can be viewed as the company’s latest attempt to defend its rigid App Store policies.

The iPhone maker explains that it fended off 34,000 apps for packing hidden features, and over 157,000 were rejected because they were aping other apps or just spam. The company did not spare this opportunity to highlight its focus on privacy. It claims over 800,000 developer accounts met their demise, and 343,000 apps were rejected because they violated the company’s privacy policies. Eight hundred thirty-five thousand new apps and 805,000 app updates were rejected or pulled off the App Store due to issues like bugs.

The company adds that 170 million customer accounts were deactivated for being fraudulent, and 118 million attempts to crate fraudulent accounts were halted. Moreover, some apps tried to cheat the App Store Review process by altering functionality after they were approved or rejected. Apple says over 155,000 such apps were axed from the company’s sole app distribution channel. 63,500 Illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts also irked the company and were promptly blocked. Unintended use of the Enterprise Developer Program to distribute apps also forced Apple to stop distributing 3.3 million apps.

On the bright side, Apple says its App Store review team helped over 107,000 developers get their apps online in 2021. It also claims it saved information of 3.3 million stolen bank cards from being used for potentially fraudulent purchases. Similarly, 600,000 accounts were banned from ever transacting on the App Store again.

Apple adds that it is watchful for reviews that could be malicious, misleading, or spam. In 2021, the iPhone maker nixed a whopping 94 million reviews and 170 million ratings because they didn’t live up to the company’s moderation standards. An additional 610,000 reviews were nuked after human evaluation.

Lastly, Apple’s report reiterates its plans to continue detecting and stopping fraudulent accounts and activity before they cause monetary loss to users. That said, this report joins a string of similar ones highlighting the successes of the App Store reflected in the benefits of Search ads and the popularity of third-party apps.