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Privacy Apple Technology

Apple Fails To Block Porn and Gambling 'Enterprise' Apps (techcrunch.com) 77

Facebook and Google were far from the only developers openly abusing Apple's Enterprise Certificate program meant for companies offering employee-only apps. A TechCrunch investigation uncovered a dozen hardcore pornography apps and a dozen real-money gambling apps that escaped Apple's oversight. From the report: The developers passed Apple's weak Enterprise Certificate screening process or piggybacked on a legitimate approval, allowing them to sidestep the App Store and Cupertino's traditional safeguards designed to keep iOS family friendly. Without proper oversight, they were able to operate these vice apps that blatantly flaunt Apple's content policies. The situation shows further evidence that Apple has been neglecting its responsibility to police the Enterprise Certificate program, leading to its exploitation to circumvent App Store rules and forbidden categories.
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Apple Fails To Block Porn and Gambling 'Enterprise' Apps

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    See how stupid this headline is? That's how stupid apple is for not allowing anyone to run whatever they damn well please on hardware they own and paid for.

    • M$ can do this thou.
      At least thru their own store. Prolly in Windows in general if they wanted to.
    • No, I actually don't. I see you had replace Apple with Microsoft. I guess you are expecting the Apple Fanboy to be all Hating on Microsoft... For the same occurrences.

      Unlike Microsoft, Apple has always had a closed ecosystem for the iOS platform. When you buy an iOS device you know this, and a lot of people delightfully take this trade-off so they are more comfortable that their app that they download isn't going to cause undue harm to their device, their information or their finance.

      As a tech guy, I woul

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        "When you buy an iOS device you know this, and a lot of people delightfully take this trade-off so they are more comfortable that their app that they download isn't going to cause undue harm to their device, their information or their finance."

        Which has nothing to do with gambling, porn, piracy, competition, and censorship in general. Verifying the apps are safe, stable, and virus free is a completely separate debate because it doesn't require blocking any of the aforementioned content. And Apple is more th

        • Realistically, isn't the larger problem here that gambling, porn and other fringe businesses are kind of sleazy from an honesty perspective?

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            No the larger problem here is your phone manufacturer usurping your right to decide what is sleazy and dishonest or even to be sleazy and dishonest. Their job is to produce a phone, not prevent someone from calling their buddy to buy a joint. How is it any different with your apps? The issue you raise is one for the users mother, spouse, or priest.

            Where there are crimes around these things the sleaziest elements really come from the fact that arbitrary natural human behaviors are outlawed and therefore don'

            • by jythie ( 914043 )
              Apple is not usurpring anyone's rights, they are exerting their right to make a product as they see fit and consumers are exerting their right to purchase or not purchase based on the advertised functionality.
              • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

                by Shaitan ( 22585 )

                You are speaking of Apple as if it a private company with rights. It isn't, Apple is a publicly traded company and the consumers who pay it's rent for it and the shareholders who are its landlords have a right to make demands of it. Apple has no right to moral judgement. The problem is those consumers are doing just what you said, buying on the basis of advertised functionality and Apple isn't advertising censorship in specs. Since they have a near monopoly censorship is a very big issue indeed.

                Some compani

            • Actually, the problem is even bigger than determining what's "sleazy". When you're talking about a large, publicly-traded corporation that has to worry about shareholder lawsuits if the board does something that causes share prices to (even temporarily) dip, they become UNBELIEVABLY risk-averse and institutionally-allergic to anything that might be even SLIGHTLY controversial unless the government either gives them a clear, unambiguous safe harbor or outright requires that they do something.

              Large corporatio

      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @02:51PM (#58111176)

        "As a tech guy, I would love my Phone, to be able to install any App I want."

        It can. You just have to compile or sign it yourself. Apple used to charge $99 a year for that ability, but it's been free for a while.

  • by eggstasy ( 458692 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @11:49AM (#58110016) Journal

    Makes perfect sense to have lots of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, violence but have no tolerance for nipples.

    • Effing murican hypocrites. Tits and nipples never hurt anyone. Drugs and guns on the other hand ...

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @12:19PM (#58110214)

        "Tits and nipples never hurt anyone."

        ROFLMFAO

        I don't think any of the above should be outlawed or censored in any way but you've got to be kidding with this. Behind every fight, war, ambition, and dispute there is at least one fine pair of tits. If it weren't for competition to get laid we'd all be content masturbating in caves and eating whatever thing we killed that day raw.

    • Makes perfect sense to have lots of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, violence but have no tolerance for nipples.

      Only female nipples though. Big no no.

  • by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @11:50AM (#58110024)

    ...designed to keep iOS family friendly.

    Safari come installed by default yes? You can get to porn and gambling really easy on that.

  • You don't get as much money as they have by doing the work. You skip the work and just collect the cash.
  • by jevvim ( 826181 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @12:07PM (#58110118) Journal

    And the warden knows that not all contraband is the same. But, still, you can't have the image that the rules aren't being enforced at all.

    The gambling & porn apps will get a new EAC and move their users over; it's the hassle that they should have been planning for. Two of the apps in the article's table have multiple web presences, suggesting that some have planned for it.

    For Facebook & Google, it's a PR issue. Apple may have scored points with the public for putting out this "we're protecting you against the big guys" story. It would look unseemly for Facebook or Google to directly point out the other contraband in Apple's jail -- nobody like a snitch.

    But then the articles and commentary will come from people with ties to Facebook or Google, such as someone who "was the Lead Writer of Inside Facebook, ... covering everything about the social network", that "has moderated over 120 on-stage interviews" but lists only three: Edward Snowden, U,S, Senator Cory Booker, and Mark Zuckerberg.

    I'm just saying, a little birdie told me...

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @12:10PM (#58110138)

    I don't think it's very practical for Apple to really police enterprise apps, due to the way they are distributed and who can possibly be running them. Lots of companies rely heavily on the aspect where you do not have to keep track of each and every device and people can easily install company apps on personal devices...

    I think where Apple could improve things though is in the initial application for enterprise developer programs. At the very least, it seems like it would not take too much more effort to block one issue mentioned in the article - registering for an enterprise dev account with a stolen DUNS number. There should be some way that Apple could ask the main contact info for any given DUNS number to confirm they had indeed asked for such access... That wouldn't stop everyone but it would probably stop the worst cases.

    • So if you have a company, you should have to pay Dun & Bradstreet for permission to develop internal apps? Fuck your idea.
      • So if you have a company, you should have to pay Dun & Bradstreet

        Maybe you should have looked into that a little more carefully? Since a DUNS is free [quora.com] and all?

        The purpose of the DUNS number is to have an entity that keeps track of legally registered businesses. So yes in fact, I do think Apple should make sure there is some understanding of who is requesting the open-ended ability to distribute applications on the platform. It's just that they also should verify who they are talking to really belongs

        • It's not "free" to do the legwork and jump through hoops like a trained circus monkey for permission to do something that's permission-free on platforms that don't treat their users like wayward children.
          • It's not "free" to do the legwork and jump through hoops

            It takes literally minutes and no effort beyond remembering where you wrote down your EIN; I have one for my business.

            I would say I understand where you are coming from, but supporting the technological destruction of the non-technical is really not a concept I can get behind.

            Looks like you ignored the advice about your pie-hole. Talk about ignorant monkeys... I guess time to delete your account out of shame and start up another.

            I'll let you have the

            • I don't support the technological destruction of the non-technical -- I support the non-technicals' right of access to content without the technical acting as petty scolds and nannies.
  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @12:22PM (#58110236) Journal

    Mr Cook, tear down this wall.

  • by nuckfuts ( 690967 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @12:35PM (#58110302)
    I have an app called Safari on my iPhone. There is quite a bit of porn accessible with it.
  • by Dog-Cow ( 21281 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @12:57PM (#58110460)

    I've worked for a company that uses an enterprise account for internal testing. Apps signed with enterprise profiles are never seen by Apple.

  • "Apple has been neglecting its responsibility to police"
    How is it their responsibility? Are they officially the (thought) police now? If there is a crime report it to the actual police. If not then it's not their responsibility.

    Spoon manufacturers have been neglecting their responsibility to police people eating too much ice cream.

  • by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @01:31PM (#58110732)

    Real humans like vices that upset me, waaaah!!!!

    Just think, email, browser, movie player, picture viewer, document viewer can be used FOR PORN. or TO ARRANGE GAMBLING OPPORTUNITIES. Why does Apple and google allow these perversions?

  • Apple needs to drop the apple store only / have an adults only area.

    Will they ban HBO as that as nude in it.

Whatever is not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry up is not nailed down. -- Collis P. Huntingdon, railroad tycoon

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