Apple Defends Decision to Remove Parental Control Apps

I think this highlights the conflict between owner and a user. For Corporations with employees there is a clean distinctions. For kids it’s a lot more difficult decision. Apple in its zeal to maintain the woke privacy friendly image (everywhere except China) made calculated decision that risk of these apps getting used in Intimate Partner Surveillance leading to negative PR is more than parents being unable to protect their kids from drugs and grooming. We will soon see how it plays out. My guess the the timer will turn red as it does when recording screen to alert user of MDM.

FTA: "The controversy follows comments last week by chief executive Tim Cook, who said that Apple wanted to see customers spend less time on their devices."

Talk is cheap and sells well...

I find the decision of the scorned developers to file with the European Union’s competition office amusing considering the Union's incredibly strong stance on individual data privacy.

iPhones contain so much personal data on-device that Apple is absolutely responsible for protecting that data from illegitimate access. Using MDM which is clearly intended for enterprise management is an illegitimate use-case. Period.

The argument that their ability to use MDM APIs in the past and earn revenue due to a gap in Apple's vigilance dictates that they should be able to continue unimpeded is a logical fallacy.

Apple is under no obligation to offer unfettered API access to these companies just because they were filling a market need that Apple didn't want to pursue. You can tell if Apple wasn't under a market demand obligation to offer MDM to enterprises, they would cut that too.

One of the value props of the iPhone and the iOS ecosystem is that Apple exerts this level of control and editorializing on the platform. The result of which is easily seen when comparing the quantity of data mining apps on Android vs iOS.

I'm sure if I was one of these scorned developers, I would feel abused even victimized by Apple. Unfortunately that is a biased perspective. Apple is doing the right thing for consumers and end-users by blocking these apps.

The reporting on this was atrocious and seems to be a result of the recent competitive chatter about sandboxed computing platforms like iOS. Broader discussions around anti-competitive behavior on these platforms are needed, but this wasn't the poster-child.

I wonder if they're also removing the apps used to control women's lives in Saudi Arabia.

And the thing is Apple is not banning parents from buying something like AirWatch - a legitimate MDM software/service ($4.95 per device per month) - where the parents are in complete control of the profiles installed on their kids devices.