121–130 of 457 posts
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…
I suspect Apple themselves don't realize that their own policies have inhibited the development of apps which would blow away what currently exist at the high end, given the unacceptable business risk of depending on such control-freak caprice. The laisse-faire world of PCs is bigger and better simply for that reason - an enormous swath of hardware and software that simply has to adhere to an objective technical standard.
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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 No stores. Web install. Web first class. No "only Safari/webkit engine" limitation. If Apple is so genius, they can solve malware with all of those engineering minds and dollars they have. They don't need to hind behind a store to do that. The tools and techniques are readily available and accessible for a company of their size and stature. Permission layer, app runtime heuristics,…
An App Store with a human review process is one tool in the toolbox.
> Permission layer, app runtime heuristics, and fingerprints are a start. They can do this.
I think this is Google’s approach. How’s that been going?
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> 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.
Because that is not money laundering.
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…
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It’s super obvious, but here you go:
Step one: Trick old people into sending you iTunes gift cards or buy iTunes gift cards with stolen credit cards
Step two: Get an app in the App Store and use the iTunes gift cards to buy it many many times
Step three: Receive 70% of the money you laundered through the App Store from Apple. Pay taxes on it, and you’ve got clean money.
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> Could you enlighten us? How does one launder money through some iOS apps? It’s super obvious, but here you go: Step one: Trick old people into sending you iTunes gift cards or buy iTunes gift cards with stolen credit cards Step two: Get an app in the App Store and use the iTunes gift cards to buy it many many times Step three: Receive 70% of the money you laundered through the App Store from Apple. Pay taxes on it,…
That is not money laundering.
Come on guys, read a bit, don't just parrot back what you see on Netflix.
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> 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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
You answered to the wrong comment maybe? Because that is not money laundering.
You use stolen credit cards to buy gift cards (or just defraud people to obtain gift cards). This is dirty money.
You pay it to yourself on the App Store by getting an app listed and buying it. Apple then deposits money (minus their 30% cut) in your bank account, which is clean money.
How is that not money laundering?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 No stores. Web install. Web first class. No "only Safari/webkit engine" limitation. If Apple is so genius, they can solve malware with all of those engineering minds and dollars they have. They don't need to hind behind a store to do that. The tools and techniques are readily available and accessible for a company of their size and stature. Permission layer, app runtime heuristics,…
How does that work? If it's open web download and install with no notarization (because that's also gatekeeping) then we're back to the good ol' days of the 90's and early 00's. In other words, anything goes and it's up to the user to keep themselves secure, which in practice means rampant security failures and users getting scammed and hit with ransomware at every turn.
I don't like Apple having so much control over everything. I really preferred the old days of the web and the anything goes, full control over my computers I had back then. But the web is absolutely way nastier today. It's jam packed with scammers and ransomware gangs and botnets. It's really quite sad and frustrating for anyone who grew up with the full potential of computing.
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If you’ve ever been in the App Store for any length of time you’ll see how lazily retributive Apple is. It’s not a company I’d ever do business with.
Is Play Store or Steam any better? All these stores are basically little monopolies with zero incentive to not suck. They also suck from a user point of view. Search is terrible, they’re full of shovelware, etc.