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Developer account removed by Apple

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Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#321

Post by neoberg »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #308
_pigpen__ wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the App Store is the only vehicle for selling mobile apps on Apple devices, then by virtue of their monopoly, they have a duty to be entirely transparent and fair. It’s entirely an Apple problem.

[flagged]

Not OC but exactly. They have a "monopoly" on the comments by their HN handle so they're responsible for what's written from that handle.

The same way Apple holds a monopoly on an ecosystem they created so they are responsible for what's happening there.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#322

Post by stefs »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #308
_pigpen__ wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the App Store is the only vehicle for selling mobile apps on Apple devices, then by virtue of their monopoly, they have a duty to be entirely transparent and fair. It’s entirely an Apple problem.

[flagged]

the app store is the monopoly. afaik there's no other way to get apps on your apple device.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#323

Post by tempest_ »

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,…

if your app is just a dollar or two like most are a couple grand to pump the reviews seems like a no brainier

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#324

Post by sshine »

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…

A friend of mine upvoted all of my StackOverflow posts daily for a period of time until it got flagged and the points were removed. He did it again later, and it got flagged again with a warning. I had to ask him to stop upvoting all my posts, because it was indistinguishable from me giving myself points via a proxy account.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#325

Post by matwood »

quickthrowman wrote: post #128
moralestapia wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You answered to the wrong comment maybe? Because that is not money laundering.

It sounds like you have no idea what money laundering actually is, to be honest. Money laundering is concealing the source of illegally obtained money. 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, whi…

The stolen CCs are not part of the laundering (that's just fraud/theft). I think it's easier to talk about laundering cash from drug sales. You buy an Apple Gift card with the cash. Use the gift card to buy jewels in an app you control, and now you have cleaned your drug money.

The challenge with doing this at scale on the App Store is the account requirement. Apple also likely has controls on how many gift cards you can redeem over a period of time. You also need an app that looks plausibly functional. The amount of money people supposedly spend on gems or whatever will help though.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#326

Post by strongpigeon »

It’s hard to get a full picture, but reading the text reviews on Google Play [1] makes it seem like these app are the kind that require subscriptions for no reason and are really aggressive about asking for reviews.

There’s also a big disconnect between the average of the text reviews and the “score only” ones.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sarafan.re...

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#327

Post by nmilo »

ponector wrote: post #172
nmilo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally just racism.

Governments everywhere along the globe are enforcing discriminatory rules based on passport and/or birthplace. And everyone is ok with such "racism".

If a border agent called me suspicious based only on my passport then yeah that is racism

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#328

Post by Manuel_D »

ghostpepper wrote: post #266
Manuel_D wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your company mandates installation of malware, then that's not something an app store can fix. If your company mandates the installation of malware and it's not available on the Apple AppStore, do you think they'd just say, "well okie dokie I guess the policy doesn't apply to you"? No, they'd require you carry a compliant device. If my company is mandating the installation of software on my devices, I'll request a…

People who have plenty of options for switching jobs are generally not the first target for oppressive technology

I'm not sure how this is relevant to my point: "sorry your app isn't on the Apple app store" probably isn't enough to stop an oppressive employer from forcing employees to install spyware.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#330

Post by eastbound »

SenAnder wrote: post #65
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…

> 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.

If Apple says it is laundering, wouldn’t they claim it is not your money. And wait for every payer to complain. Evil but corporations often are.
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