Apple bans Google from test apps after it admits using ‘research’ app

“Apple has now shut down Google’s ability to distribute its internal iOS apps, following a similar shutdown that was issued to Facebook earlier this week,” Tom Warren reports for The Verge. “A person familiar with the situation tells The Verge that early versions of Google Maps, Hangouts, Gmail, and other pre-release beta apps have stopped working today, alongside employee-only apps like a Gbus app for transportation and Google’s internal cafe app.”
“‘We’re working with Apple to fix a temporary disruption to some of our corporate iOS apps, which we expect will be resolved soon,’ says a Google spokesperson in a statement to The Verge,” Warren reports. “Apple also appears to be working more closely with Google to fix this situation. ‘We are working together with Google to help them reinstate their enterprise certificates very quickly,’ says an Apple spokesperson in a statement to BuzzFeed.”
“In an earlier statement over Facebook’s certificate removal, Apple did warn that ‘any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked,'” Warren reports. “Apple is clearly sticking to its rules and applying them equally to Facebook, Google, and likely many other companies that get caught breaking Apple’s rules in the future.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good.
The lesson is clear: Abuse your enterprise certificates, lose your enterprise certificates.
SEE ALSO:
Should Apple’s power over Facebook worry the rest of us – January 31, 2019
Big surprise: Google is also abusing Apple’s Enterprise Certificate system to collect extensive data on users – January 30, 2019
Apple blocks Facebook from running all of their internal iOS apps by revoking distribution certificate – January 30, 2019
Apple bans Facebook’s ‘research’ app that paid teens to install VPN that spies on them – January 30, 2019
Hidden documents reveal how Facebook made money by bamboozling children – January 18, 2019
Roger McNamee: I mentored Mark Zuckerberg. I loved Facebook. But I can’t stay silent about what’s happening. – January 17, 2019
Apple CEO Cook calls for U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation in TIME op-ed – January 17, 2019
Senator Marco Rubio introduces privacy bill to create federal regulations on data collection – January 16, 2019
Apple endorses comprehensive privacy legislation in U.S. Senate testimony – September 26, 2018
Trump administration working on federal data privacy policy – July 27, 2018
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]