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I'm not sure you can have it both ways: you can't complain on the one hand about the likes of Facebook having access to undocumented APIs, and on the other expe

I'm not sure you can have it both ways: you can't complain on the one hand about the likes of Facebook having access to undocumented APIs, and on the other expect apps which make use of these APIs (even for social good) to not get removed from the App Store. We had the wild west of apps with the Windows ecosystem and it ended in malware, viruses and spyware. Even with appropriate permissions, most customers do not know what they're letting themselves in for if undocumented/private APIs, custom certs and proprietary VPNs are part of the picture.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
You can if your income depends on as many people visiting your article's website as possible, and the best way to do that is to make it invoke emotions. After this, you can then write an article about companies abusing undocumented APIs to steal information.
saagarjha 8y ago
FWIW, I don't think these apps used undocumented APIs. They merely used (or abused, depending on your viewpoint) publicly available MDM APIs for parental controls.
- kristianc 8y ago
  > They merely used (or abused, depending on your viewpoint) publicly available MDM APIs for parental controls Same difference. Most consumers don't understand the implications of a third party provider fingerprinting their App usage (and then likely selling the device ID + app usage to advertisers)
  - snazz 8y ago
    Most consumers also don’t understand that these apps don’t provide MDM-level control to parents, but to the app developer who shares a small amount of that control with parents. It would be a good compromise if Apple allowed third-party applications to use some Screen Time data with a device permission.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    It’s not quite the same thing. I agree with you that users don’t really understand how MDM works, but saying that the apps are using undocumented/private API is not true because if they were this case would be significantly more clear-cut.

lotsofpulp 8y ago

You can if your income depends on as many people visiting your article's website as possible, and the best way to do that is to make it invoke emotions. After this, you can then write an article about companies abusing undocumented APIs to steal information.

saagarjha 8y ago

FWIW, I don't think these apps used undocumented APIs. They merely used (or abused, depending on your viewpoint) publicly available MDM APIs for parental controls.

kristianc 8y ago
> They merely used (or abused, depending on your viewpoint) publicly available MDM APIs for parental controls Same difference. Most consumers don't understand the implications of a third party provider fingerprinting their App usage (and then likely selling the device ID + app usage to advertisers)
- snazz 8y ago
  Most consumers also don’t understand that these apps don’t provide MDM-level control to parents, but to the app developer who shares a small amount of that control with parents. It would be a good compromise if Apple allowed third-party applications to use some Screen Time data with a device permission.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  It’s not quite the same thing. I agree with you that users don’t really understand how MDM works, but saying that the apps are using undocumented/private API is not true because if they were this case would be significantly more clear-cut.