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> Now App Store product pages on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey display a “Report a Problem“ link, so users can more easily report concerns with content

by OldHand2018 5y ago

> Now App Store product pages on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey display a “Report a Problem“ link, so users can more easily report concerns with content they’ve purchased or downloaded. It appears that reports are going to be attributed to actual accounts, which should enable Apple to identify abusers more easily.

jsjohnst 5y ago
> It appears that reports are going to be attributed to actual accounts, which should enable Apple to identify abusers more easily. I don't feel X == Y in this case. Account creation is not a high enough bar to block abusers IMHO. Amazon reviews require accounts too, but that obviously doesn't stop the negative review attacks which GP mentioned.
- DelightOne 5y ago
  Maybe correlate with regular spending.
  - r00fus 5y ago
    Quite easy/cheap to pass that bar - have your 100-1000 sockpuppets spend a few $$ on a subscription (which may or may not be money coming back to you in some fashion), then buy competitor apps and report them as scams. Possibly negated with some form of (even Apple-internal) web-of-trust measurement of account validity.
    - DelightOne 5y ago
      And adding human review completes it. The other measures are just to reduce the amount of spam.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  I feel like App Store accounts require a credit card number, and they do an authorization for a few cents to check if it’s real. At least they did years ago when I tried to set up a relative’s iOS device with a fake credit card number.
  - eigen 5y ago
    you can use an Apple App Store account without credit card or other payment info. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204034 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204034
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      Interesting, I wonder if that changed or if they were not up front about it before.
- withinboredom 5y ago
  I’m sure like most models, the weight of your submission will largely be determined by multiple factors, such as the age of the account, how much money you’ve spent, whether you’ve spent money on the app being reported, how many devices are connected to the account and for how long, etc. Not all complaints are created equal and it allows them to attribute a “trust factor” across several metrics.
  - jrockway 5y ago
    For a few thousand bucks and the right cause, I'll happily sell my vetted AppleID for this. I don't have anything important in there -- a ton of apps that I never use that I can't remove from my account, and years of history. It is of zero value to me, but apparently because of these checks, could be worth a lot of money to someone else.
- jackson1442 5y ago
  I would assume that attacks similar to these could be checked against device ownership - for example if a user has been the first registered owner of an apple device, their reports may be deemed more trustworthy. If they see a device being reused to submit similar reports, that could be a signal that reports are fake.
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  Account creation is a very high bar when it comes to Apple services, because Apple "console bans" hardware devices associated with accounts that evidence fraudulent behavior. I expect they will only seriously consider reports from users who have an active Apple hardware device bound to their Apple account. I also expect they'll link this system to a human review queue. If you send abusive reports for something that isn't scammy, it will probably not be considered scammy during human review, especially if you're responsive to questions asked by Apple during that review. There will, of course, be a 'first post' false positive someday when a reviewer makes the wrong call, but it's a safe bet that they have not implemented a Google/Facebook/Yelp system where your life and livelihood can be destroyed by an algorithm without human participation.
ensignavenger 5y ago
So if are fraudulent ripoff of your app gets uploaded by some one else, in order for you to report it, you have to purchase the fraudulent ripoff app?
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  If you have an Apple developer account in good standing, at WWDC they introduced a separate reporting page for you to use, that doesn't require to you have purchased the app first. There's also a pre-existing, years-old process for you to report lookalikes and such.
  - ensignavenger 5y ago
    Cool, I'm not an Apple dev so I wasn't aware of this... sounds like for some devs though these reports havn't been taken seriously in the past.

jsjohnst 5y ago

> It appears that reports are going to be attributed to actual accounts, which should enable Apple to identify abusers more easily. I don't feel X == Y in this case. Account creation is not a high enough bar to block abusers IMHO. Amazon reviews require accounts too, but that obviously doesn't stop the negative review attacks which GP mentioned.

DelightOne 5y ago
Maybe correlate with regular spending.
- r00fus 5y ago
  Quite easy/cheap to pass that bar - have your 100-1000 sockpuppets spend a few $$ on a subscription (which may or may not be money coming back to you in some fashion), then buy competitor apps and report them as scams. Possibly negated with some form of (even Apple-internal) web-of-trust measurement of account validity.
  - DelightOne 5y ago
    And adding human review completes it. The other measures are just to reduce the amount of spam.
lotsofpulp 5y ago
I feel like App Store accounts require a credit card number, and they do an authorization for a few cents to check if it’s real. At least they did years ago when I tried to set up a relative’s iOS device with a fake credit card number.
- eigen 5y ago
  you can use an Apple App Store account without credit card or other payment info. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204034 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204034
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Interesting, I wonder if that changed or if they were not up front about it before.
withinboredom 5y ago
I’m sure like most models, the weight of your submission will largely be determined by multiple factors, such as the age of the account, how much money you’ve spent, whether you’ve spent money on the app being reported, how many devices are connected to the account and for how long, etc. Not all complaints are created equal and it allows them to attribute a “trust factor” across several metrics.
- jrockway 5y ago
  For a few thousand bucks and the right cause, I'll happily sell my vetted AppleID for this. I don't have anything important in there -- a ton of apps that I never use that I can't remove from my account, and years of history. It is of zero value to me, but apparently because of these checks, could be worth a lot of money to someone else.
jackson1442 5y ago
I would assume that attacks similar to these could be checked against device ownership - for example if a user has been the first registered owner of an apple device, their reports may be deemed more trustworthy. If they see a device being reused to submit similar reports, that could be a signal that reports are fake.
floatingatoll 5y ago
Account creation is a very high bar when it comes to Apple services, because Apple "console bans" hardware devices associated with accounts that evidence fraudulent behavior. I expect they will only seriously consider reports from users who have an active Apple hardware device bound to their Apple account. I also expect they'll link this system to a human review queue. If you send abusive reports for something that isn't scammy, it will probably not be considered scammy during human review, especially if you're responsive to questions asked by Apple during that review. There will, of course, be a 'first post' false positive someday when a reviewer makes the wrong call, but it's a safe bet that they have not implemented a Google/Facebook/Yelp system where your life and livelihood can be destroyed by an algorithm without human participation.

ensignavenger 5y ago

So if are fraudulent ripoff of your app gets uploaded by some one else, in order for you to report it, you have to purchase the fraudulent ripoff app?

floatingatoll 5y ago
If you have an Apple developer account in good standing, at WWDC they introduced a separate reporting page for you to use, that doesn't require to you have purchased the app first. There's also a pre-existing, years-old process for you to report lookalikes and such.
- ensignavenger 5y ago
  Cool, I'm not an Apple dev so I wasn't aware of this... sounds like for some devs though these reports havn't been taken seriously in the past.