rcfa

I hope that includes the information one needs to enter to use the apps.

As Apple, thankfully, put the squeeze on apps' access to information useful for user tracking (device ID, MAC addresses, cookies, etc.) a lot of developer reach for the big guns, and require users to register with their phone numbers “for security reasons” before they can use the apps.

Of course, getting a users phone number is a lot more powerful information than just getting a random device ID. So Apple needs to do something about that practice, the least would be to list it on these labels...

I hate to say it, but the woman has a point, and it’s Apple’s own fault:

Apple’s justification for its walled garden approach to the appstore is safeguarding users, retaining a family friendly user environment, etc.

I remember the brouhaha over ILLUSTRATIONS in a Kamasutra app that were too explicit, simply because they had a black dot where there’s supposed to be a nipple...

Now, please tell me someone with a straight face that gambling, which is a known addiction just like cocaine or heroin, is “safe” but even rather abstract illustrations of tits are not?

Heck, Apple banned Craigslist apps, not because the apps were objectionable, but because they might show web content that Apple deemed objectionable (never mind the same content was fully accessible with Apple’s own Safari).

So yeah, gambling does make Apple money, but so would an illicit drugs home delivery app.

To put it succinctly: Gambling is a known to be ruinous addiction, there’s nothing safe about it. In a curated appstore that claims to protect users, there’s ZERO place for gambling apps that take real money to play, aside from a one-time purchasing fee for the app.

If Apple wants to claim, they are not their users keepers, fine, I fully agree, but then stop censoring apps: if someone wants to sell e.g. porn on the appstore within the legal limits, then Apple shouldn’t interfere with that, either.

Apple cannot have it both ways.

Stupid to measure innovation by silly stuff like an L-shaped battery! 

What amazing chutzpah and what sense of entitlement!

Just because the internet was originally designed in a non-commercial, academic, trusted environment where privacy wasn’t a concern, and companies like FB had a golden Moment where they could rape users’ privacy by exploiting technical shortcomings of the internet, doesn’t give them a right to these shortcomings.

This is reminiscent of lazy law enforcement: before the days of the phone, there was no wiretapping, and investigators had to burn shoe leather to get results. Then there was an era of flawed technology, where it was trivial to tap wires or intercept radio. Now that these flaws are eliminated, they also think they are permanently entitled to the fruits of the flaws of analog telecommunications. 

Nice concept, way too few keys, and subscriptions are a non-starter no matter what.