We launched an app with $500k annual revenue, and then Apple copied it

Post by em-bee » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 3:55 AM UTC

stefan_ wrote: post #71

AlphaWeaver wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because this would have been the only method to "block" access to the apps. Apple provides no API for other apps to "moderate" the opening of other apps, like Screen Time can do. This is a workaround because they were working in the sandboxed environment that is iOS.

I have an app on Android for ad blocking that simply runs the VPN server locally. Works perfectly fine. Of course that means all the juicy data isn't flowing through your startup, on the upside you won't wake up one day with an angry mob asking the attorney general to federally charge you for hijacking their communication under the false pretense of app usage tracking.

Post by em-bee » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:02 AM UTC

wp381640 wrote: post #79

This app is spyware - it's no different to Facebook and Onavo in how it can be abused[0] [0] https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/facebook-removes-onavo/

Post by didibus » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:39 AM UTC

cardiffspaceman wrote: post #72

didibus wrote: post #53

I'm not sure Apple copied it. I think the idea to have a way to track and limit phone usage was pretty widespread, even 5 years back. I multiple time looked for an app like that. The problem is that of security, and any app of the sort needs too many permissions over other apps. The VPN solution poses a big security risk to users as well. This really only makes sense as a first party feature. Now, the part where Appl…

> Was it breaking any of their rules? The rule against using VPNs to gather usage data, which apparently is new.

Post by tmikaeld » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 5:17 AM UTC

em-bee wrote: post #140

mirimir wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that jumped out at me too. > We could set up a VPN service and analyze the traffic passing through our servers to learn which social media services mobile devices were communicating with, and using this data we could estimate the time spent on different services and block access to them when users exceeded their self-determined limits. I mean, I use VPN services all the time. But doing that for an app to track…

if it's done with the express consent of the user and the data is not sold, i don't see the problem. it's only a matter of who i trust with my usage data. if it's not the vpn, then it's my isp. but, wouldn't a local 'fake' vpn be enough to capture all that locally on the phone? there is no need to send traffic to a remote server for this purpose. or does apple not allow that? it works fine on android.

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 10:03 AM UTC

chronial wrote: post #148

scarface74 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the points was that it was designed to stop you from “opening an app” based on certain criteria. The only way you can do that is with MDM on iOS.

I am confused by your use of quotation marks. That phrase is not contained in the article. You might be referring to this sentence? > In addition to tracking the time spent on social media apps, we needed to implement the feature to block those apps when the user reached the configured time limit. But "block those apps" is a perfectly sensible description of "blocking tcp certain connections at VPN level" and thus a…