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AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

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Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#51

Post by hinkley »

cafed00d wrote: post #2

This post should be evangelized like gospel! We MUST make App Store rules _even_ stricter. I hadn't thought about the nefarious patterns particularly targeted towards kids apps until I read this. Heck, after hearing about Zoom's debacle with the Facebook SDK, I feel like Apple should make it impossible for 3rd party devs to use non-Apple approved SDKs. but sigh, I know I'm afraid this viewpoint is not shared by many…

You have me wondering how many false flag conversations I've read where an Android developer argues that the Apple App store's rules should be more byzantine in order to confound 'the enemy'.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#52

Post by avolcano »

tomovo wrote: post #14

Yes! I just got charged 0.30£ by Niantic, the publisher of Pokemon Go, to verify my age during the user registration process. The payment was initiated from the iOS app and done through a web form. No IAP. Now I can only hope Niantic doesn't charge me for something my kids do in the game. This is exactly the kind of thing I fully expect Apple to protect me from.

Niantic has a legal requirement to verify that a legal guardian has allowed a child to have an account.

To do so, they use credit card verification, a commonly-accepted way to verify an of-age user that satisfies COPPA/similar requirements. Credit card verification generally works by placing a small authorization charge that is shortly refunded. This is explained here: https://parents.nianticlabs.com/faq/

There are a variety of reasons they likely can't use IAP for this. Two I can think of are that (a) IAP may not be sufficient enough for COPPA, if e.g. a parent has allowed their child to make purchases using a gift card balance, and (b) they likely have no easy automated way to refund this fee if handled through IAP.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#53

Post by tomovo »

avolcano wrote: post #52
tomovo wrote: post #14

Yes! I just got charged 0.30£ by Niantic, the publisher of Pokemon Go, to verify my age during the user registration process. The payment was initiated from the iOS app and done through a web form. No IAP. Now I can only hope Niantic doesn't charge me for something my kids do in the game. This is exactly the kind of thing I fully expect Apple to protect me from.

Niantic has a legal requirement to verify that a legal guardian has allowed a child to have an account. To do so, they use credit card verification, a commonly-accepted way to verify an of-age user that satisfies COPPA/similar requirements. Credit card verification generally works by placing a small authorization charge that is shortly refunded. This is explained here: https://parents.nianticlabs.com/faq/ There are a…

I know the reasons and the means. I still don't like it. Apple already has my credit card number, so they should provide a better way to do this safely & take the 30% percent cut.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#54

Post by yodon »

hinkley wrote: post #51
cafed00d wrote: post #2

This post should be evangelized like gospel! We MUST make App Store rules _even_ stricter. I hadn't thought about the nefarious patterns particularly targeted towards kids apps until I read this. Heck, after hearing about Zoom's debacle with the Facebook SDK, I feel like Apple should make it impossible for 3rd party devs to use non-Apple approved SDKs. but sigh, I know I'm afraid this viewpoint is not shared by many…

You have me wondering how many false flag conversations I've read where an Android developer argues that the Apple App store's rules should be more byzantine in order to confound 'the enemy'.

> You have me wondering how many false flag conversations I've read where an Android developer argues that the Apple App store's rules should be more byzantine in order to confound 'the enemy'.

None. Most app developers target both stores and those that target one or the other do so for financial reasons not fanboy reasons. No app developer is going to waste time trying to make an App Store worse. They are too likely to need that other store to be functioning properly on their next project.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#55

Post by yzmtf2008 »

hinkley wrote: post #50
thatsethnz wrote: post #25

> "No free games or games with In-App Purchases" This is a great rule. As a father of similarly aged kids (10, 9, 4) this is exactly what I would like to have happen at my house. Unfortunately, I have found games like this difficult to surface on the app store. Is there a decent source for games like this? Also, Apple needs to think of the impact that the prevalence of these kinds of apps has on their revenue - I spe…

Not an Apple App Store vendor, so my information is sketchy at best, but it sounds to me like in-app purchases are only a little more complicated than listing something on the app store in the first place. If the money is the same, and the dopamine hit for the latter is greater, of course everyone is going to 'race to the bottom' with in-app purchases. Apple has not provided any incentive for people to retain custome…

Bundles have been a thing on App Store for years.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#56

Post by p1necone »

wvenable wrote: post #40
p1necone wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly agree that giving very young children unsupervised access to an internet connected device is probably a bad idea. However I question your classification of it being "addictive" and of that being the worst part. Imo playing around on a tablet is only addictive in the same way that reading a good book or playing a good video game is "addictive" - i.e. you're having fun, and you want to keep doing it because…

Maybe some games on a tablet are not fun like reading a good book but rather fun like a slot machine .

If you reread my comment I did mention that.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#57

Post by andreygrehov »

Sort of agree with the author, but oh well, the world is not perfect and by trying to make it perfect, you're stealing away from people who do not want to live in a perfect world. There is a room for everyone.

To instill good taste in my kids, I buy quality, well-designed and well-developed games. It's just that simple ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#58

Post by wvenable »

KiranRao0 wrote: post #49
wvenable wrote: post #35

I'm a parent -- it's never been easier to control what your children are doing on devices. My son isn't an admin on his laptop. I don't let him download arbitrary apps and he doesn't even own his own i-device yet. He's only slightly older than Miguel's kids, and he has a Switch (with parental controls on), but I don't see any need to give him his own iPad. When he wasn't old enough to learn about dark patterns, we di…

> Each failure, including one of his accounts getting "hacked", is an opportunity for learning. I do not have a child but I completely agree. Some of my best learning experiences have been from being manipulate when I was younger. The loss was nothing of consequence in the grand scheme of my life, but the lessons had tremendous value.

We always drilled into him basic cybersecurity -- don't give out your password, it's too good to be true it probably is, etc. But for whatever reason he pressed on this one, and even socially engineered me in the process, I think just to see what would happen.

Much worrying and crying ultimately ensued. We were eventually able to recover the account and nothing really terrible happened. But I believe this was a more valuable lesson than all our previous talks about it. And he's now slightly more insulated from this kind of thing in the future.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#59

Post by zamalek »

chrismsimpson wrote: post #9
LudwigNagasena wrote: post #8

Don’t show Windows to the author of this article or they will get a stroke.

lol. Do you even know who Miguel de Icaza is?

To be fair, he's been very heavy-handed with his support for Apple through any and all criticism. I follow him on Twitter and, from the tweets of his that I have read, he's defended Apple every single time they have appeared in the news, irrespective of circumstance or evidence. He is definitely not an objective and unbiased source when it comes to Apple.

Just because he is a well-known individual, and is incredibly intelligent, does not mean that every single opinion that he holds is necessarily superior (which is why an appeal to authority is a logical fallacy).

All of that being said, I really don't understand the point of the root comment.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#60

Post by hinkley »

yzmtf2008 wrote: post #55
hinkley wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an Apple App Store vendor, so my information is sketchy at best, but it sounds to me like in-app purchases are only a little more complicated than listing something on the app store in the first place. If the money is the same, and the dopamine hit for the latter is greater, of course everyone is going to 'race to the bottom' with in-app purchases. Apple has not provided any incentive for people to retain custome…

Bundles have been a thing on App Store for years.

Like I said, my information is spotty, but good to know, thanks. Looks like they also have pro-rated bundles (at the same time or later, I can't discern).

However, a search suggests that this feature was announced 2 years ago next month. Which is one of those grey areas where advertisers say "hundreds" and the potential customer thinks, "347" whereas the advertiser means "147".

So, you're right, and thank you for the update, but also I'm keeping an eye on you...

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