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I hope Apple will be taking down Google's enterprise distribution certificate as well, as they are abusing it to let consumers sideload a VPN app for data gathe

I hope Apple will be taking down Google's enterprise distribution certificate as well, as they are abusing it to let consumers sideload a VPN app for data gathering: https://support.google.com/audiencemeasurement/answer/7573812?hl=en&ref_topic=7574346 https://support.google.com/audiencemeasurement/answer/757381... And on top of that all of those from other companies doing the exact same thing for data gathering.

DCKing 8y ago
The problem on the Android side goes deeper, as the "Onavo Protect" app is still alive and kicking in the Google Play store [1]. The Facebook Research app here is a shallow repackaging of the iOS version of Onavo Protect, which was banned from Apple's App Store at least. It doesn't appear Google is interested in doing anything here. They would likely have to do something about the thousands of other trojan horse VPN apps, too. It's just that those are not as transparently owned by a privacy-invading internet giant (and those apps probably sell your private information directly to the highest bidder even more eagerly). [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.spaceship https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.spac... - the positive, uninformed reviews of this app give me a feeling like I'm reading a dystopian novel.
- jetpks 8y ago
  Why would Google ban apps for using Google's own business model?
  - checkyoursudo 8y ago
    > Why would Google ban apps for using Google's own business model? If Google is concerned about competition, they might. If Google is more concerned about being accused of being anti-competitive, then they probably would not.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
choppaface 8y ago
Yea, how many other companies abuse the Enterprise program like this? Should we really trust Apple to enforce their TOS when they struggle to keep up with the usage of their own platform? If there’s informed consent, Apple isn’t really protecting users. Those teens in the FB case tho.
- threeseed 8y ago
  Not sure what you want Apple to do here. They have no visibility into what companies are doing with enterprise certificates. The whole point of which was to allow internal apps to be built that Apple should have no knowledge of. They did the best they could which is to revoke the certificate once they learnt of egregious behaviour.
aboutruby 8y ago
Great find! I hope Techcrunch and others will write similar articles about this app.
- sidewaysloading 8y ago
  They have! https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/googles-also-peddling-a-data-collector-through-apples-back-door/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/googles-also-peddling-a-da... Looks like Google even sends people routers to intercept ALL their traffic, and has special devices to constantly listen to their TV to analyze what people are watching. Yuck.
  - aboutruby 8y ago
    Nice! Published one hour after my comment and it's their top front page article.

DCKing 8y ago

The problem on the Android side goes deeper, as the "Onavo Protect" app is still alive and kicking in the Google Play store [1]. The Facebook Research app here is a shallow repackaging of the iOS version of Onavo Protect, which was banned from Apple's App Store at least. It doesn't appear Google is interested in doing anything here. They would likely have to do something about the thousands of other trojan horse VPN apps, too. It's just that those are not as transparently owned by a privacy-invading internet giant (and those apps probably sell your private information directly to the highest bidder even more eagerly). [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.spaceship https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.spac... - the positive, uninformed reviews of this app give me a feeling like I'm reading a dystopian novel.

jetpks 8y ago
Why would Google ban apps for using Google's own business model?
- checkyoursudo 8y ago
  > Why would Google ban apps for using Google's own business model? If Google is concerned about competition, they might. If Google is more concerned about being accused of being anti-competitive, then they probably would not.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

choppaface 8y ago

Yea, how many other companies abuse the Enterprise program like this? Should we really trust Apple to enforce their TOS when they struggle to keep up with the usage of their own platform? If there’s informed consent, Apple isn’t really protecting users. Those teens in the FB case tho.

threeseed 8y ago
Not sure what you want Apple to do here. They have no visibility into what companies are doing with enterprise certificates. The whole point of which was to allow internal apps to be built that Apple should have no knowledge of. They did the best they could which is to revoke the certificate once they learnt of egregious behaviour.

aboutruby 8y ago

Great find! I hope Techcrunch and others will write similar articles about this app.

sidewaysloading 8y ago
They have! https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/googles-also-peddling-a-data-collector-through-apples-back-door/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/googles-also-peddling-a-da... Looks like Google even sends people routers to intercept ALL their traffic, and has special devices to constantly listen to their TV to analyze what people are watching. Yuck.
- aboutruby 8y ago
  Nice! Published one hour after my comment and it's their top front page article.