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Developer account removed by Apple

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Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#351

Post by moralestapia »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #310
moralestapia wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're really out of your element here. >It's the modern version of buying "art" that isn't valuable at insane prices. That was possible because the art world (at some point in time) enabled this. Apple and its App Store actively prevent this from happening, it's the complete opposite.

Step 1: Create an app and put it in the app store. Step 2: Generate a bunch of fake accounts in many different countries, and fund them with the dirty money. Step 3: Have all these accounts buy the app. Make sure you don't have them all buy it at once, or otherwise have a suspicious purchase pattern. Step 4: Collect the (now clean) funds from the app store, Okay, how does Apple "actively prevent" this? They don't hav…

Here's the difference,

In the art world there is (or at least, was) some level of secrecy in the transactions and parties involved.

Apple would give up all information it has about you to law enforcement at the slightest suspicion of some shenanigans happening. They also comply with all KYC requirements from the law. That's how (among other things) they "actively prevent" people using their platform for criminal activities. Heck, at their scale, they must have an entire team devoted to doing just that.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#352

Post by baxtr »

jacquesm wrote: post #255

All of this is a direct consequence of allowing a gatekeeper in the first place. Every app developer is fractionally guilty of enabling Apple to position themselves as such. I've built a neat little bit of software and I'm sure I could monetize it by wrapping it up as an app. But there is no way that I'm going to give either Apple or Google more power than they already have so the development of the app is a bit slow…

It’s all about trade-offs. Sure, they can do that. But what’s the likelihood of it happening really? Do we have good numbers?

If you want to be creative and earn money apps are a decent way. Apple/Google take care of a lot of things and you get their reach.

Is it without risks? No, nothing is in life. Is the risk high? Probably not for 99.99% of developers.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#353

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

lamontcg wrote: post #320
chongli wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No stores. Web install. Web first class... Permission layer, app runtime heuristics, and fingerprints are a start. 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 failu…

I still use MacOS and Linux, which is still the "old days" and its been 20+ years since the last time I had issues with getting hacked. A lot of the solution is just not to install random shit out of app stores, and to install software that has a good reputation (and use adblockers on search engines like google so you don't click on trojan ads). If you scroll down to the 10th page of the listings for 2048-clone games…

I had a friend that just got pretty severely pwned on his Mac.

They installed some kind of DNS redirector, so, when he thought he was contacting Apple, he was actually talking to a scammer.

Their customer service was great, which I told him, should have been a red flag.

In any case, he was able to extricate himself from the scammers, but not before they had grabbed a bunch of PiD, so he’s still dealing with the whole identity theft issue.

Not sure how he got owned. Likely, some drive-by malware on a Web site. He basically uses Safari as his operating system.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#354

Post by hbn »

lencastre wrote: post #132
mariopt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can consider, virtually, all reviews fake in any mobile store. Sometimes I read the reviews and wonder: Who on earth wrote this? Honestly, it's up to Apple to moderate the reviews and detect review farms. If posting fake reviews is all it takes to take down my competitors out of the store, it's game on.

I believe you need to own the app to review it, so there is a cost to consider. Maybe it’s freemium or just a dollar but regardless you need to create an account, buy it, review it,…

Barely any apps get you to pay upfront any more, in my experience most are free to download and it's either a trial, or so ad-ridden that it's unusable without an in-app purchase. Either way, any account could leave a review without paying.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#355

Post by michaelmrose »

judge2020 wrote: post #98
echelon wrote: 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…

Couldn't the app store support a singular store interface that draws from a singular default source and user added sources?

People could pay Apple to vette sources to indicate that software therein isn't malware even if it doesn't follow other Apple standards.

Anyone maximally concerned would just only use Apple sources. If Apple was less onerous about trying to get a cut most major software would be in the official store. Say a 5% cut.

Remember at one time the manufacturer trying to get a cut of the action on a device was rightfully absurd.

Your oven doesn't refuse to bake a pie unless Betty Crocker cut in GE nor did Magnavox require a cut from blockbuster.

Both could be implimented for your protection and both would have been protection rackets. Apple's arrangement is as well it's just that the mob actually oversees permits too and charges on the way in.

If you could trivially use only official apps and most apps would be available as such how would you be harmed?

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#356

Post by yieldcrv »

judge2020 wrote: post #40
Manuel_D wrote: 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…

This was talked about by Phillip Shoemaker (head of App Store Review 2009-2016) in this talk[0], where some developers figured out that if they hired marketing firms to commit review fraud on a competitor’s app, their competitor would get terminated because there’s no clear way to actually attribute the fraud to the developer. I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. 0…

web2isgoinggreat

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#357

Post by mike_d »

madeofpalk wrote: post #28
mortallywounded wrote: post #4

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

I've never seen these apps before. I have no idea who this company is. But these icons, names, and type of apps I typically associate with trash behaviour I wish was removed from the app store. Like a Video Joiner Pro that lets you concat two videos, has a 1 week free trial and then $20/month subscription. Edit: Ahh yup, that's exactly what this is > A simple and convenient collage maker will help you make cool video…

I would bet that they got cancelled because of end user complaints directly to Apple and/or chargebacks from credit card companies.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#358

Post by lotsofpulp »

jacquesm wrote: post #314
ajhurliman wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of these self-proclaimed “platforms” need to be regulated: no participation in your own platform (Amazon Basics), or at least no self-preferential treatment, caps on platform usage fees closer to 3-5%, neutral and open source search algorithms, limits on advertising. I’m a capitalist at heart but this is anti-competitive, it’s closer to feudalism than capitalism.

We're perilously close to an internet that is entirely siloed, so instead of AOL we end up with two or maybe three more or less incompatible versions of AOL, and with far more control over the lives of their customers than AOL ever had. There is some chance that it will end up with only two of these players depending on who reaches the point where they have enough free cash that they can further consolidate, assuming…

Unless those companies are stopping someone from visiting different domains, I would not describe that as the internet being siloed.

The most popular destinations on the internet may be “siloed”, or most business will occur in the silos, but the internet itself is as accessible as it ever was.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#359

Post by jacquesm »

baxtr wrote: post #352
jacquesm wrote: post #255

All of this is a direct consequence of allowing a gatekeeper in the first place. Every app developer is fractionally guilty of enabling Apple to position themselves as such. I've built a neat little bit of software and I'm sure I could monetize it by wrapping it up as an app. But there is no way that I'm going to give either Apple or Google more power than they already have so the development of the app is a bit slow…

It’s all about trade-offs. Sure, they can do that. But what’s the likelihood of it happening really? Do we have good numbers? If you want to be creative and earn money apps are a decent way. Apple/Google take care of a lot of things and you get their reach. Is it without risks? No, nothing is in life. Is the risk high? Probably not for 99.99% of developers.

It's not about the likelihood of it happening, it is about the principle of it being possible and it happening to anybody in the first place. On the plus side: those complaining were actually supporting the system until it bit them so that's about a powerful a wake-up call as there probably will be. Unfortunately it doesn't generalize well because everybody else thinks: 'oh, that fortunately wasn't me that got bitten'.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#360

Post by araes »

silenced_trope wrote: post #145
judge2020 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was talked about by Phillip Shoemaker (head of App Store Review 2009-2016) in this talk[0], where some developers figured out that if they hired marketing firms to commit review fraud on a competitor’s app, their competitor would get terminated because there’s no clear way to actually attribute the fraud to the developer. I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. 0…

pretty clever, it reminds me of the early days of the app store when apps would be taken down for copyright strikes but if you provided proof you'd be given "immunity" from further strikes taking down your app while Apple investigates it became a strategy to copyright strike your own app, have proof ready so that no downtime was necessary, then you have the temporary immunity so that competitors couldn't submit a cop…

This is actually what I started thinking when I got to the end of the article. Maybe just immediate human snatch and grab cynicism.

That the author hired somebody to dump review, does something fishy with money like those above noted, and then sues for more money.

Levine over at Bloomberg had an interesting article where ransomware gangs are now filing SEC reports, as a way to pressure companies to pay, or minimize ROI.

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