[samename]

Ironic the Apple App store allows a "phone antivirus" to exist.

[xp84]

Almost unbelievable that they allow this - except of course they do, because scamware makes a ton of money via in-app purchase, and Apple gets 30%, so of course they do. I'm sure people will come out of the woodwork now to white knight for Apple and spin this somehow. But anything that offends their business model can be removed in minutes, while software that by its title violates the App Store rules is just here indefinitely.

[mitemte]

The App Store has done a great job of training users to think that anything downloaded from it is somehow safe. In reality, Apple’s static code analysis and human review processes are flawed and people need to exercise way more caution than they do.

[9dev]

I'm pretty sure that one made it through the review for some reason, you don't typically see these apps in the App Store.

[cbarrick]

Quite an unhinged take.

The claim that malware "makes a ton of money" for Apple definitely needs a citation. I certainly don't believe it.

Obviously, Apple understands that the reputational damage from malware is more costly than any cut they might get from the miniscule sales of it. Apple might be evil (for some definition of "evil"), but they're not dumb.

Occam's Razor and Halon's Razor are aligned here. Apple would prefer this app not exist, but somehow it slipped through the review.

[ronsor]

Funnily enough that's given as an example of a prohibited type of app in their review guidelines.

[cwillu]

@PlatoIsADisease (because dead comments can't be replied): the term WalledGarden has been a term for this and related concepts since long before marketing-speak had completed the takeover of the internet.

[krackers]

But it's rated 4.4 stars! I'm guessing it hoovers your contacts and tries to get you to sign up for the IAP subscription.

[jsheard]

The meta these days is bundling dodgy SDKs which turn the device into a residential proxy, which then gets sold on to the highest bidder. Mostly AI companies, whose desire to scrape literally everything has driven demand for that type of malware into the stratosphere.

[halapro]

Curated App Store, they said. Might have been true in 2010