Apple Yanks Privacy App From the App Store 136
wiredmikey writes "Back in May of this year, Internet security firm Bitdefender launched 'Clueful,' an iOS App that helps identify potentially intrusive applications and show users what they do behind their back, and giving users an inside look at all the information app developers can gather about a user. Seems legit, right? Apple doesn't think so. Or at least they have an issue with something behind the App that sparked them to pull it from the App Store. After initially reviewing and approving the App that was released on May 22, Apple has had a change of heart and has just removed the App from the AppStore. It's unclear [why it was yanked], and Bitdefender told SecurityWeek that the company is under NDA as far as explanations for the removal. Interestingly, Bitdefender did share some data that they gathered based on Clueful's analysis of more than 65,000 iOS apps so far, including the fact that 41.4 percent of apps were shown to track a user's location unbeknownst to them."
Re:rotten (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:NDA What? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Federal government routinely (anymore) uses National Security Letters to shred the entire Bill of Rights, and one of the provisions of NSLs is an NDA. After the Patriot Act was passed, anyone violating that NDA risked going to prison. Today, they can just disappear.
I small a rotten fish, not Apple, at the core of this particular "incident", a rotten fish wrapped in an old Washington Post newspaper, if you know what I mean.
Re:rotten (Score:5, Interesting)
This is probably nothing more than the app had to have broken out of its sandbox. There should not have been a way for the app to monitor what other apps were doing without doing something disallowed by Apple.
Not saying I don't want this app, or that some arrangement/exclusion shouldn't be reached by the two companies (perhaps with a code review to make sure everything they are doing outside of the sandbox is benign), but I don't think this is a big conspiracy.
Just simply Apple continuing in its tunnel vision of not allowing apps full freedom on its phone.
Would definitely install this app if it was brought back. Perhaps release code so we can install it ourselves?
Re:rotten (Score:4, Interesting)
That's kind of what I was wondering, unless the app is simply a searchable catalog of the apps they have previously studied.
I'm curious how apps get your location without your knowledge? The first time an app asks you're supposed to get the location services popup, and whenever your location is being accessed you're supposed to get the little location arrow in the status bar at the top of the phone.
As much as I love my iPhone, I'm glad to get Apple get embarrassed by some of this stuff. The fact that many games were taking your phonebook simply because they could and sending it to the developer's servers was insane.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Interesting (Score:4, Interesting)