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Apple has locked me out of my developer account

rambo.codes

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Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#81

Post by Terretta »

djsumdog wrote: post #57
ceejayoz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And he’s successful: he leaked marketing images for Apple Watch Series 4, he found iPhone X glyphs showing the notch, and more. Presumably in violation of the developer program's NDA.

Then why not just say so in all his support calls? "You've violated the NDA, so we've disabled your account permanently." Now you have a clear reason and a clear violation. Apple gate keepers get to show their insane dominance over all parts computing on their hardware. Personally I hate this new move towards Apple/Microsoft/Google being gatekeepers for everything that can run on a machine. It's fucking bullshit.

The distinction between hardware and software is blurring. Software-defined-X is becoming a thing.

Apple/Google/Microsoft thinking is easier to understand if the black slab in your hand is considered one thing, not two things. If it is not a general purpose personal computing device (PC), but a branded PDA that makes calls.

For most consumers, that’s right, and for them, the strategy is right. Make the PDA experience seamless and safe.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#82

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

reaperducer wrote: post #66
technofiend wrote: post #29

Tangential at best but this is why I literally created a new user ID yesterday solely for Google's Stadia. They have a tendency to lower the ban hammer with little discretion and I'm quite sure sooner or later griefers will figure out how to allege cheating complaints that result in account closure. I'd rather not lose my real Google account to someone's online indigestion.

this is why I literally created a new user ID yesterday solely for Google's Stadia Not enough. Google's ban hammer can hit not only an allegedly infringing account, but also any account it suspects is even related to that account. Share an IP address? Log in from the same place regularly? Machine has cookies for both? It's all gone.

Scary. Presumably you have some real world examples of this?

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#83

Post by judge2020 »

xhruso00 wrote: post #35
sanxiyn wrote: post #2

> Apple always says that "running to the press doesn't help" This is a bald faced lie, so you must ignore it.

As per ex-App Store employee it always HELPS. https://youtu.be/tJeEuxn9mug?t=836

Better timestamp: https://youtu.be/tJeEuxn9mug?t=1840

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#84

Post by gwbennett »

If Apple believes Rambo violated the Developer Agreement, why not let him know? Why not give him a warning? Both Google and Facebook recently violated Apple's Enterprise Developer Agreement, had their accounts locked, and within 48 hours their accounts were reinstated after they were allowed to correct the issues. Same has happened over the years to other companies.

If Apple did lock his account because of some violations(s), why not give him the same opportunity?

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#85

Post by Terretta »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #75
ngngngng wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse on android. You'll lose access to every google account you have (email, photos, drive) and if you circumvent by creating a new account and are caught then you will be banned again as well as all of the accounts that are associated with the new account. This could potentially destroy an entire business if they hire a banned individual and get their entire company banned because of it.

Can you cite any real world examples of this happening?

Ironically, Google them.

(And plenty here on HN for a decade now.)

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#86

Post by intpx »

djsumdog wrote: post #57
ceejayoz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And he’s successful: he leaked marketing images for Apple Watch Series 4, he found iPhone X glyphs showing the notch, and more. Presumably in violation of the developer program's NDA.

Then why not just say so in all his support calls? "You've violated the NDA, so we've disabled your account permanently." Now you have a clear reason and a clear violation. Apple gate keepers get to show their insane dominance over all parts computing on their hardware. Personally I hate this new move towards Apple/Microsoft/Google being gatekeepers for everything that can run on a machine. It's fucking bullshit.

Because lawyers. Apple currently is under no obligation to release the rational for their decision. If they publicly tell him why, he can challenge it much more effectively. The apple NDA is possibly too broad to be enforceable and given that ALL of their competitors are allowed access to the developer system, gives them no traditional protection of trade secrets. Id est, It gives them an unintended benefit of controlling the public story (and thus some degree of market forces) about their products, but does not keep their market competition from peaking inside. If they divulge the rationale, and he challenges it in court it would upend their (and lots of other) developer programs, or at the very least cost them lots of time, attention and goodwill fighting to preserve it.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#87

Post by saagarjha »

A number of commenters have mentioned that Rambo has a day job where he publishes leaks and other internal details of upcoming Apple releases. I'm not sure why he hasn't mentioned this in the article, but if it is related, it's still not the best look for Apple. The only time I can think of where the company has done something like this was banning Charlie Miller from the program, for publishing an app that allowed remote code execution to the App Store and then doing a presentation about it. In this case, Rambo has certainly done things which would violate the developer program NDA–but every news outlet that covers Apple does this by posting images of NDA'd prereleases, including developers and journalists that Apple has a great relationship with. It might be that Apple thinks it is wrong and/or illegal to look at their unreleased intellectual property (as Rambo has had access to internal-only builds presumably leaked to him by engineers) but silently banning him from his developer account is obviously not the correct way to deal with this, either. And finally, if Apple honestly thinks that this would prevent leaks: they're just wrong. Even on the software side, I can think of a handful of ways that would work just as well at finding prerelease information, completely legally, even without violating my developer NDA. The only thing stopping me is the fact that I don't spend time doing this professionally.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#88

Post by technofiend »

reaperducer wrote: post #66
technofiend wrote: post #29

Tangential at best but this is why I literally created a new user ID yesterday solely for Google's Stadia. They have a tendency to lower the ban hammer with little discretion and I'm quite sure sooner or later griefers will figure out how to allege cheating complaints that result in account closure. I'd rather not lose my real Google account to someone's online indigestion.

this is why I literally created a new user ID yesterday solely for Google's Stadia Not enough. Google's ban hammer can hit not only an allegedly infringing account, but also any account it suspects is even related to that account. Share an IP address? Log in from the same place regularly? Machine has cookies for both? It's all gone.

Meh. My google account is really just getting forwarded e-mails from another provider. If they banned every account I own I'd have to switch to Apple and restore my contacts from backup I use to feed my voip provider and photos from backblaze. It would be annoying but not devastating. However you can bet I'd raise holy hell on social media to try and undo it since that seems excessive.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#89

Post by frenchyatwork »

Answerawake wrote: post #70
liquidise wrote: post #38

Apple's relationship with developers has been a strange one for some time. It shows up in all kinds of ways, from their app development ecosystem to decisions on their hardware. I used to think the swap to a Unix-based OS was a fundamental shift to move in the developer direction. During the days of XServe i think that might have been true. These days though it more like the development community is some noisy group…

What is the alternative to Apple? I don't see Linux being solid in a few years time (or ever really). I say this after trying Linux again every year in the hopes that this is the year it is solid. My anecdotal experience for this year is that the latest Ubuntu release had a problem where after performing a clean install and rebooting, the login screen will not allow me to enter the desktop. Turns out the desktop was…

Did you by a computer that came with Ubuntu? IIRC, Dell and a few smaller vendors sell these. I would imagine you could get some support from the computer vendor if the video card driver was that broken.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#90

Post by repiret »

Since day one of the app store, there has been a persistent stream of complaints of terrible customer service to developers. Apps being rejected for reasons nobody can figure out, app reviews taking an egregiously long time, account lockouts like this.

On the one hand, when a developer account is only $99/yr and there is a strong incentive for some developers to try to get away with things, what choice do you have but to provide only automated service portals and call center employees who are powerless to fix any problem not anticipated by their scripts.

But on the other hand, there are lots of people making big bucks developing apps, and who are genuinely trying to follow the rules (even if they think some of them are dumb). Apple should have an option for these people to pay extra for real customer service.

If I made my living as a solo app developer, I wouldn't hesitate to pay any 4-figure annual price if in exchange I got siloed into a small dedicated support team so that my apps were always reviewed by one of a small number of people in order to get more consistent rejections, and reviewed in a timely manner. And I got an account manager I could call up and get weird problems like this resolved the same day - even if the resolution was sometimes unsatisfying: like being told that Apple decided Electron apps use private APIs and will all be denied until Electron fixes it, or being told that I violated the terms of my agreement by publishing details of unreleased products, and so my account has been irrevocably locked.

If I were a moderate sized company, there are many 5-figure annual prices I would pay for the same.

For many app developers, there's real money on the line. Apple should charge them real money and give them real support.

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