Live data from Hacker News

Developer account removed by Apple

seraleev.notion.site

111–120 of 457 posts

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#111

I get that everyone feels strongly about abuse of power by these app stores, but I wish stories like this would stop making it to the front page. Often, the company trying to build outrage knows very well what they've done and is lying to try to get a mob going to get what they want. The pattern is usually the same: the story gets a lot of upvotes from people who don't pause to think about the story, the first few co…

Flag them and/or email the mods. That actually works whereas the meta exhortations mostly don't and just beget more meta.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#112
This keeps happening again and again in all online marketplaces. Be it amazon, ebay, app stores, etc.

This NEEDS to be regulated. If thousands of companies make a living in your marketplace, you simply can't be allowed to take destructive unilateral action against their business without due process.

One guy reviewing tickets in a random location worldwide, working for minimum wage, takes a 30 second look at your case and closes down your account. Your company loses millions and goes out of business before any dispute even gets processed (If they even have a dispute system)

This is simply an insane way of doing business.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#113
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. The most essential device of the century is owned by two companies. The ability for them to completely control software and business activities on top of something that is almost as essential as public transportation is appalling. The DOJ needs to remove the "app store" racket for essential computing devices. Software needs to…

One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps. Requiring third party app stores disproportionately harms those that purchased the device specifically for these purposes (such as people at higher risks of being targeted by nation state actors). And this isn’t something that can be addressed with a new uber-secure product just for these people, because the EU will deem it a g…

> Requiring third party app stores

That's doing a lot of work. There's "... to be usable" but also "... to be automatically and unfilterably merged".

They are very different situations. What specifically are you concerned about? I'd guess that latter but you seem to be defending the former as though it is the latter.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#114
post #82
post #43

Russian guy saying that he is in Chile in the first sentence? Absolutely nothing suspicious. https://companies.rbc.ru/id/1215600010141-obschestvo-s-ogran... It is even a Russian company. It was registered a bit before the war started and liquidated not so long ago.

This is literally just racism.

No, attempting to prevent money from flowing into a country which is actively waging war against neighbors is not racism.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#115
post #8

If the fake reviews are indeed the reason why the apps were taken off the store, that does strike me as an inappropriate action. Take down the reviews, yes. But closing the developer account creates a big opportunity to eliminate competition by buying fake reviews for your competitors. There's also nothing developers can do to prevent this since they can't curate or reject reviews from what I know. That said, other c…

[flagged]

> Could you enlighten us? How does one launder money through some iOS apps?

You use stolen credit cards to purchase the app. It's a very common method of fraud and does not require a criminal mastermind or a group of people to perform.

I have no opinion on what happened in this particular case, but it's crazy to imply that nobody is doing this stuff.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#116

This is very reminiscent of the Dash controversy from a few years ago. In that case Apple even responded with the details[0] of the developer's transgressions, after a huge outcry from the app dev community. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12680131

That link is very very far from the end of the Dash story, which includes the developer recording a phone call with Apple. See extensive coverage by Michael Tsai:

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/10/apple-and-kapeli-respond/

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2017/05/30/dash-for-ios-returns-to-t...

Dash for macOS continues to this day, though not in the App Store.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#117

Something feels off... those apps don't seem like 33K/MRR worthy. I suspect some kind of manipulation was being done to... help?

>those apps don't seem like 33K/MRR worthy

It's 6 of them, so more like ~5K USD/month revenue.

I'm sorry that you've never built something meaningful, but that revenue bracket is actually low for a decent app with some marketing going on.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#119
post #101
post #43

Russian guy saying that he is in Chile in the first sentence? Absolutely nothing suspicious. https://companies.rbc.ru/id/1215600010141-obschestvo-s-ogran... It is even a Russian company. It was registered a bit before the war started and liquidated not so long ago.

The company is liquidated, which means he doesn't do business in Russia. Also, I love living in the world where doing business is suspicious because of my nationality.

404 Such World Not Found The war only made this much worse, but essentially "wrong nationality" has always been a factor for banks' KYC, for example

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#120
post #8

If the fake reviews are indeed the reason why the apps were taken off the store, that does strike me as an inappropriate action. Take down the reviews, yes. But closing the developer account creates a big opportunity to eliminate competition by buying fake reviews for your competitors. There's also nothing developers can do to prevent this since they can't curate or reject reviews from what I know. That said, other c…

> That smells more like money laundering or fraud. Does Apple get to decide this, and just keep the money, without involving any court of law? Someone mentioned anti-money laundering laws and secrecy, but can that manifest as losing your money, without trial or even being informed that you're accused of anything? That would seem to violate a few constitutional rights.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN