61–70 of 183 posts
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How is Apple a “monopoly” with less than 20% of the smart phone market?
They are monopoly for apps built with iOS SDK.
> Critically, using the persistent location API also allows us to use an acknowledged acceptable way to capture when our users have active screen time. They're admitting to using background location to infer screen time, which is clearly "misuse" according to section 2.5.4. Whether the decision is right or wrong, I find it hard to believe that the developer is actually confused by this.
The app has a feature that allows you to see where you are spending your time on your phone. This could be helpful to get an idea about time wasted at work vs. commuting by train or whatever. I'm not going to say it's super useful, but it has a use.. I would categorize this in the same bucket as Snapchat needing your GPS. Anyway, the complaint is that they are using this data for more than features and functionality.…
Incorrect. The complaint is that they are not using Location for its intended purpose, thereby impacting the performance (battery life) of the device. Quoted in the article:
> Performance – 2.5.4
> Your app is misusing background location for purposes other than location-related features and functionality.
The key word here is location-related features and functionality. Not "features and functionality" in general, as your comment implies.
I don't think it could be any more clear-cut. "Screen time" is just about the least "location-related feature/functionality" that one could think of. It's pretty clear that they are violating the terms of service, regardless of the benefit that this feature may or may not provide.
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So now you want to get the government involved because Sony didn’t allow cross platform play for the PS4? What type of content will Apple be allowed to ban on its store? Do you want the government telling Apple what they have to allow third parties to access on thier OS? Should the government tell them that every developer should have root access? Access to the Secure Enclave?
If they're using that to a commercial benefit, to the point of being anti-competitive, over other people who are developing for that platform, yes.
And do you want to set up a “government app review board” to decide on a case by case basis when Apple is denying an app for “competitive reasons”?
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It looks like they’re using the location API for both (1) screen time inference and (2) screen time and location correlation; and they’re using (2) to justify use of location while ignoring that (1) violates Apple’s TOS. I agree that users ought to be able to use the app without granting access to location data (opting out of #2). But unfortunately, if Apple provides no way of inferring screen time without use of loc…
#1 Does not violate TOS. At least the rep spoken to said it does not. It is permitted to apps to known when the screen is on / screen off, via the built-in notification it provides.
It is of note in this case that "misuse" is perfectly arbitrary. The RescueTime app did use location, only locally on the device, to enrich the information provided to users. It also happened to capture screen time, obviously important to the app. Be clear here: Apple has not said this aspect is misuse . Screen time recording is blessed by Apple. There are at least three other apps active in the app store that do the…
https://academy.realm.io/posts/altconf-josh-michaels-depreca...
Description at the link: "It’s every Apple developers worst nightmare. Your app is doing well, business is going fine, then all of a sudden BAM! Something changes in Apple’s world and suddenly everything is at risk. Sometimes it’s as simple as Apple deprecating an API you depend on. Other times it’s a policy matter - a change in rules that has Apple requesting that you change or remove your app from the store. Sometimes it is a bug in the platform which you have to hack a creative workaround for. No matter what the specifics, developers should be prepared to handle that day when Apple pulls the rug out. After more than six years of working on apps in Apple’s land I’ve had more than my fair share of these experiences. In this talk I will go through four different examples from multiple developers covering the most common situations in which changes in Apple land can disrupt your app. Through these stories I will offer best practices for handling these difficult situations from how to interact with Apple to how to deal with the gripping frustration that can come along with these challenges. The goal of this talk is to better prepare attendees for that inevitable day when something goes wrong and in doing so help reduce the ambient anxiety many developers feel about the possibility of such problems."
Slightly related. Only a month ago I deleted my RescueTime account and the app from my Mac. With all the privacy issues lately, I finally realized how much data I'm sending RescueTime, and a made a decision. I don't have a reason to mistrust them, but I also don't have a reason to give them this much of my trust either. A breach of the RescueTime database would be insanely invasive.
Could someone please recommend a cross-platform self-hosted alternative to ResueTime?
I still wonder how is this legal.
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> It "nationalizes" the monopoly app by creating a generic version of the same app. Out of curiosity: Is there a generic version of RescueTime? > The problem is, the generic app versions are exceptional in that they have much deeper access to the phone than a traditional independently built App Store app. This is what Microsoft allegedly did with Office. Sysinternals' Mark Russinovic documented that so called "Native…
I don't see any mention of Office on the page you linked?
>Thoughts along these lines usually lead to the Native API conspiracy theory: Microsoft is keeping the API for themselves and their own application to unfair advantage.
From my memory of the discussion back then I think "their own application" was understood as mainly MS Office. The back this up bit more the Analysis of the Inadequacies of Microsoft [1] by the DOJ specifically mentions "the Internet Explorer browser, and Office in desktop applications".
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20080625000937/http://www.consum...
Time for some anti-trust regulations on the app store. In the "mobile apps" market, Apple is an overwhelming monopoly with 66% market share [1]. Some stats: - Total app store market revenues for 1st half (1H) of 2018: ~$33B - Apple's app-store revenue for 1H-2018: $22B - Apple's market share: 66% They constantly abuse their power and stifle competition by: 1. Banning apps (this app, steam streaming, ....) 2. Stifling…
This is not an abuse of power. This is looking out for their users' privacy. I would have thought most people at this time would know that Apple does not take lightly a situation where an app is sending lots of privacy related user behavior to some kind of server somewhere. At a minimum, store this analytics on the phone only. But then again, you may use APIs for reasons other than their intended purpose.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It looks like they’re using the location API for both (1) screen time inference and (2) screen time and location correlation; and they’re using (2) to justify use of location while ignoring that (1) violates Apple’s TOS. I agree that users ought to be able to use the app without granting access to location data (opting out of #2). But unfortunately, if Apple provides no way of inferring screen time without use of loc…
#1 Does not violate TOS. At least the rep spoken to said it does not. It is permitted to apps to known when the screen is on / screen off, via the built-in notification it provides.
Multitasking apps may only use background services for their intended purposes: VoIP, audio playback, location, task completion, local notifications, etc. If your app uses location background mode, include a reminder that doing so may dramatically decrease battery life.
Screen time inference is clearly not an intended purpose for location, since the actual location data obtained has no connection to it (i.e. to #1 above; note we're interpreting "purpose" from the user's perspective). It sounds like the rep is misinformed, or that the TOS needs to be updated with an explicit exception.