Apple ’s novel App Store privacy guidelines limit apps thatcollect datum on user ’ friends — specifically , the address rule book of iPhone users — already seemed to be in large part a response to Facebook ’s sprawlingCambridge Analytica data outrage . But the company could also be target Facebook ’s Onavo Protect VPN table service , which baffle as a path to grant users anonymity from Robert William Service provider and websites butis explicitly designedto vacuum up huge sum of information on the machine usage use of anyone who enables it .
Bloomberg , whichreported on Apple ’s crackdownon liaison assembling on Tuesday , release another articletoday indicate that another update to the App Store guidelines banish the assemblage of other app datum for “ analytics ” or net income could be a big middle fingerbreadth to Onavo :
The iPhone manufacturer ’s updated App Store Review Guidelines ban applications that “ collect information about which other apps are installed on a exploiter ’s gadget for the purposes of analytics or advertising / merchandising . ” This could give Apple grounds to absent the Onavo app , although the software is still useable despite the rule kick in last workweek .
…
Apple ’s Modern guidelines “ sound like they ’re almost written in response to what Onavo and others have been doing , ” said Will Strafach , a researcher who has studied Onavo Protect and concentre on the security department of Apple ’s iOS peregrine operating system . A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment .
As Bloomberg note , Apple already uses a technique called sandboxing to prevent apps from harvesting data from other apps via the gimmick , but Onavo trust onanalyzing “ mobile data dealings . ”That seems more or less like the kind of practice session Apple is trying to cease on the App Store , and it could also apply to other VPNsthat spy on iOS usersfor selling purposes as well .
Onavo Protect isstill listedon the App Store as of late Tuesday eventide , but if it disappears it could be a sign that the Apple - Facebook standoff that haslong been brewingis warming up . Alternately , Facebook could simply change Onavo ’s data - collection practice for the iOS version of its app or simply hope that its sheer clout prevents Apple from take on action ( probably a very unfit wager , generate Apple explicitly used Facebook as anexample of a regretful actorat its recent WWDC 2018 group discussion ) .
Either way , Onavo is a cracking example of corporate spyware , so if it ’s bring up off the App Store the only rip caducous will be crocodile ones .
[ Bloomberg/9to5Mac ]
App StoreAppleCybersecurityFacebookPrivacyTechnology
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