Apple fails to block porn and gambling apps abusing Enterprise Certificate program

“Facebook and Google were far from the only developers openly abusing Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program meant for companies offering employee-only apps,” Josh Constine reports for TechCrunch. “A TechCrunch investigation uncovered a dozen hardcore pornography apps and a dozen real-money gambling apps that escaped Apple’s oversight.”
“The developers passed Apple’s weak Enterprise Certificate screening process or piggybacked on a legitimate approval, allowing them to sidestep the App Store and Cupertino’s traditional safeguards designed to keep iOS family-friendly,” Constine reports. “Without proper oversight, they were able to operate these vice apps that blatantly flaunt Apple’s content policies.”
“The situation shows further evidence that Apple has been neglecting its responsibility to police the Enterprise Certificate program, leading to its exploitation to circumvent App Store rules and forbidden categories,” Constine reports. “For a company whose CEO Tim Cook frequently criticizes its competitors for data misuse and policy fiascos like Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica, Apple’s failure to catch and block these porn and gambling demonstrates it has work to do itself.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program always struck us as a weak point in the app ecosystem, but we assumed – wrongly, it turns out – that Apple had better (some?) policing of the program to prevent abuse!
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