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Comment by jtbayly | Hacker News Reader

Should I, or should I not be allowed to run whatever applications I want on my phone?

Should I, or should I not be forbidden from filtering the internet for myself? Meanwhile, the content I see is filtered by FB, Twitter, etc. Why should their desires rule mine on my device?

Should I, or should I not be forbidden from seeking help accomplishing my own goals for online use, in particular accountability for giving up various addictions? Meanwhile, FB and Twitter are allowed to know what I view, but I'm not allowed to let anybody else know what I view. Why should they be able to hold me accountable, while I'm not allowed to seek accountability from anybody else?

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You're asking me? Ok: it should not be possible for you to install surreptitious screen recording software on an iPhone. The problem isn't that this app got blocked; it's that all the other ones (except maybe that one app that only records screenshots when you use their browser) aren't banned.

But this is totally besides the point. We're not discussing what Apple's rules ought to be. We're trying to help figure out what they are. That's what the author of this app asked us to do.

This is what you wrote that I was responding to: "cards on the table: none of these apps should be allowed on the app store."

I'm hoping you've simply not really thought this through. We can't demand that parents be held accountable for what their children do while also forbidding parents from knowing what their children are reading, watching, writing, hearing, or saying.

> We can't demand that parents be held accountable for what their children do while also forbidding parents from knowing what their children are reading, watching, writing, hearing, or saying.

There's no reason that knowledge has to be garnered surreptitiously. (If your answer is "if it's not surreptitious, then kids will try to bypass it" … well, they will anyway.)

Nobody said it had to be surreptitious. And the app we are all discussing is explicitly not surreptitious. If you go back and reread the original ask HN comment, he says that it is visible.

> Nobody said it had to be surreptitious.

The comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29571643) to which you were responding (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29571750) says:

> You're asking me? Ok: it should not be possible for you to install surreptitious screen recording software on an iPhone.

> it should not be possible for you to install surreptitious screen recording software on an iPhone.

I agree with this 100%. It should not be possible on any platform. Key word there being surreptitious.

To clarify, your comments are about iOS apps. Look at their MacOS apps, and it's a different story. The capture the entire devices screen, not just the web browser. And several competitors do it.

FTA: “I've made sure since day one that a "reasonably suspicious" notification is present when the app is monitoring.”

So are you still sure I should never be allowed to run this code on my phone?

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