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Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

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Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#91

My small business manufactures the product in the link below and sells it on Amazon. It has over 1000 reviews and on my honor I have never purchased or posted a fake review anywhere including Amazon. Out of curiosity can one or two readers with the Fakespot App go to my product page and see what the App reports. Preferably two people, just to see if there is randomness to the result. This assumes you can still use an…

I've never used the app or extension, but someone in this thread mentioned they have a web version:

https://www.fakespot.com/product/garagemate-open-your-garage...

It gives an A rating.

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#92
post #80

Fakespot is one of the more atrocious extensions when it comes to data collection. It sends everything you look at, everything you add to cart, while you are logged out of everything it will also persistently track your viewed items with a unique identifier. I understand that the below may be in PP/ToS but come on, a normal user will not. It does a lot of things completely opaque to the normal end user that are well…

Still less than Amazon tracks ya

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#93
post #33

Cool, I didn't know about this. Will download on Google Play!

Google Play has the same rule about accessing third party APIs and actually had it before Apple (I know because I’m perma banned from Google Play Development for violating this rule with an app I did)

Oh my, it is good they don't know one of mine apps does, so it is not banned still after almost 10 years in Android Store.

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#94
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a prison because you’re welcome to leave whenever you want.

you can leave the phone ecosystem the same way you can leave society at will.

That's overly-dramatic. It's not that difficult to leave the iOS ecosystem. There's adequate tools for exporting data for emails+contact.

If you want to move to Android, you'll have to buy a new device and spend maybe $100 on apps, but most services support both platforms. Yes it'll suck to lose that one "killer app", but there's likely alternatives that are almost as good.

Changing ecosystems is always a viable option.

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#95
post #80

Fakespot is one of the more atrocious extensions when it comes to data collection. It sends everything you look at, everything you add to cart, while you are logged out of everything it will also persistently track your viewed items with a unique identifier. I understand that the below may be in PP/ToS but come on, a normal user will not. It does a lot of things completely opaque to the normal end user that are well…

So many people on HN complaining about privacy, but then come to the comments section to defend an extension that literally collects and sells everything you do. Seems a tad ironic.

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#96

Another small slice of personal agency is lost. Still enjoying those walled gardens keeping you "safe?"

I wonder if Apple would have pulled the app if it were from a nonprofit organization that doesn’t track everything the user does on those websites.

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#97
post #85

That's kinda outrageous. I know this is unrelated to reviews, but I got a product shipped by and from Amazon 2 weeks ago that was missing its original box but instead was in an unmarked box that still had a shipping label addressed to Amazon returns on it. Amazon gives so few shits about product quality it's baffling

They give so few shits because we keep using them despite everything they do. The people need to put their money elsewhere for Amazon to get their act together.

[deleted]

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#98
post #48

It's still usable in a web browser at: https://www.fakespot.com Review Meta does a similar thing and its iOS app seems to be still available: https://reviewmeta.com

Note that reviewmeta was recently sold to a new operator, so we'll see how trustworthy it continues to be. Some interesting data on financials and revenue models here: https://storecoach.com/products/for-sale-reviewmeta

I’m a bit confused here. ReviewMeta, the site that filtered review, was mostly making money by selling items as an Amazon seller ?

The business model was to find items people are browsing on Amazon and then find a drop shipping niche ?

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#99
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel notably unfree on an Apple product, which amazes me because my reference is Google products. The thing which struck me was when I tried to watch a film I've had on my PC hard drive for what must be 5 years now, but Apple won't let VLC ship the codec.

Is the codec and container available in MrMC or Infuse? https://apps.apple.com/us/app/infuse-7/id1136220934 Video: 3GP AVI ASF BDMV DIVX DVDMEDIA DVR-MS FLV ISO/IMG M2TS M4V MKV MOV MP4 MPEG MTS MXF OGM OGV TS VIDEO_TS WEBM WMV WTV I’d be curious what it is, if not. VLC is missing codecs on Windows store too: https://itigic.com/normal-vlc-vs-microsoft-store-vlc-differe...

I think I tried the free version of infuse and some other one, neither worked.

This is also ignoring that Apple don't deem it useful for you to be able to rename file extensions, which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't copied it as a .vkm instead of mkv

Re: Apple removes ‘Fakespot’ app from iOS App Store following Amazon request

#100
post #60

In response I’ve cancelled my Amazon prime. Fakespot was doing the job Amazon has failed to do for years and was the only thing keeping me there. Thanks Amazon for finally making this breakup a done deal.

I've posted a similar comment before, but on what basis do you trust fakespot? If they were being paid to promote or even outright manipulate the analysis how would we know? Or how would the be immune to the same review manipulation by sellers that Amazon is prone to? Why do you think we don't need a fakespot for fakespot too?
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