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Why would there be server costs for an app that tracks local app usage on the phone?

opencl 7y ago
It didn't actually directly track app usage locally, it tunneled all traffic through a VPN and tracked usage by monitoring network connections.
- SenorSourdough 7y ago
  It's mind boggling that there is any good way for an app that just tracks your social media usage to make money when they have to tunnel all their user's internet usage. (Assuming they actually made any money on that $500k revenue...)
  - busymom0 7y ago
    I really really doubt they made any money on $500k. Unless they developed the app themselves, hiring developers for such a complex app with backend itself would cost a few hundred thousand dollars.
    - gentle_p 7y ago
      Based on the story there are just 2 of them - founders, so not a lot of costs for devs.
busymom0 7y ago
Apps on iOS are sandboxed so no app has access to usage of other apps. They got around it by using a pretty forceful workaround of using VPNs to tunnel the data. The way they were tracking the app usage data was by making the user install a VPN profile so all the device's network traffic would be tunnelled through the developer's VPN servers. On the server, they would be able to track each network traffic and measure the device's app usage. Therefore the server cost which I am sure have to be very huge. Also a HUGE privacy and security issue. Apple was right to take these down as they were also against the app store guidelines for usage of MDM profiles for the wrong reasons.
- gentle_p 7y ago
  Actually, this is not against Apple guidelines, they announced update on WWDC’19 in June, and now VPN apps can exist on Apple App Store again following these rules https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#vpn-apps https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#vpn... and https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=06032019j https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=06032019j

It didn't actually directly track app usage locally, it tunneled all traffic through a VPN and tracked usage by monitoring network connections.

SenorSourdough 7y ago
It's mind boggling that there is any good way for an app that just tracks your social media usage to make money when they have to tunnel all their user's internet usage. (Assuming they actually made any money on that $500k revenue...)
- busymom0 7y ago
  I really really doubt they made any money on $500k. Unless they developed the app themselves, hiring developers for such a complex app with backend itself would cost a few hundred thousand dollars.
  - gentle_p 7y ago
    Based on the story there are just 2 of them - founders, so not a lot of costs for devs.

busymom0 7y ago

Apps on iOS are sandboxed so no app has access to usage of other apps. They got around it by using a pretty forceful workaround of using VPNs to tunnel the data. The way they were tracking the app usage data was by making the user install a VPN profile so all the device's network traffic would be tunnelled through the developer's VPN servers. On the server, they would be able to track each network traffic and measure the device's app usage. Therefore the server cost which I am sure have to be very huge. Also a HUGE privacy and security issue. Apple was right to take these down as they were also against the app store guidelines for usage of MDM profiles for the wrong reasons.

gentle_p 7y ago
Actually, this is not against Apple guidelines, they announced update on WWDC’19 in June, and now VPN apps can exist on Apple App Store again following these rules https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#vpn-apps https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#vpn... and https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=06032019j https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=06032019j