> your app uses public APIs in a manner not prescribed by Apple
What an enraging way to phrase this. I understand Apple's desire to shut this down, but they make their contempt for app developers obvious at every possible turn.
What an enraging way to phrase this. I understand Apple's desire to shut this down, but they make their contempt for app developers obvious at every possible turn.
Apple's not out to get you. In fact, I'm glad they did this. That iHasApp looks creepy as hell, and it pisses me off that other devs were using it to basically spy on me. It reduces my trust in all apps.
Mozilla patched that information leak. I don't remember anyone accusing them of "contempt for web developers."
I'm no longer using iOS regularly, but the fact that Apple can and does police apps that violate a user's expectation of privacy is one of the strong points of the platform.
In Apple's case, the more secure options would either be "an app must include a perapproved list of which other apps are authorized to see that it is installed", or popups for permissions like "Image Editor wants to know if you have Dropbox."
Since Apple has both the authority and the manpower to approve or disapprove of apps, they chose to not take either and to stick with the version that gives the best user experience, while also allowing devs to continue checking installed apps when they need to as appropriate for cross-app interaction.
I guess it sucks from iHasApp's perspective, but I don't have any more sympathy for them than any other spyware developer. Just because Win32 apps aren't sandboxed and can read arbitrary data out of my home folder doesn't mean it's an OK thing to do.
The better way is to design the API in such a way that it can't be "abused". It's Apple's fault that iHasApp was able to do what it did, and it's Apple's fault that Facebook continues to do what iHasApp did.
If something is stealing my personal information and sending it off to advertisers, I'm entirely happy to have the OS vendor give them the boot.
I'm sure the iOS developer Terms of Service forbids this at some level. If not, then update it. Then say you're shutting this down because it violates the TOS.
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
> We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.
My concern is that this, like everything, will be applied unevenly. For instance, Twitter's app does this, and probably won't be yanked from the app store.
Fuck enumerating the apps that users have installed.
That's not what the API is for, and no user in their right mind would want that to happen.