New iPhone feature added: free application removal!
It’s here! It’s here! The feature that nobody wants on the iPhone is here! I’m talking about Apple’s ability to determine if you have any apps you shouldn’t have on your iPhone followed by their (not your) removal of said application. Terry White bought the Netshare app that allows you to tether your iPhone for modem use and watched as the app was later removed right before his very eyes. He was issued an iTunes credit for his purchase (although he had to ask for it), so at least from a financial standpoint he was covered.
iPhoneAtlas says that Apple maintains a list of unauthorized applications and a string in the iPhone file system verifies that; if an app is added to that list, expect it to go "poof!" all by itself at some point in time. Some are saying that the iPhone "phones home to Cupertino" to keep this list updated, but I haven’t seen evidence of that. I suspect that the list of undesirable applications is updated with each firmware update or perhaps with each USB tether; just speculation on my part and I’m sure we’ll hear more about that in the future.
That issue aside, the colossal fail here is isn’t with the application blacklisting mechanism in my opinion. Isn’t Apple the gatekeeper for the apps in the App Store? That’s where app control should be: at the source, not at the end point. Then again, I’m not sure that having my phone silently calling Cupertino behind my back is highly desirable either. Thanks to Alan & Steve for the tip!
At what point does the phone become mine? Ugly. Wow…just wow.
This demonstrates the failing of how software “purchases” work. You never “buy” a program, you just license the right to use it. In almost every program’s EULA if you read the fine print there’s a clause that says that the license can be revoked at any time. It’s not right and it’s not fair but we accept it when we “buy” a program.
This is pretty sick of Apple in any event, they should not be the police of each owner’s phone, outside of the phone upgrades and App Store itself. Leave us be after that.
lovelyy…
Just imagine if Microsoft had been able to revoke installation of Outlook Express remotely back in the days of the loveletter/etc viruses..
One problem with only allowing non-malicious apps into the App Store is that you have to ensure, right up front, that an app is entirely non-malicious and that it does not have a glaring and dangerous security hole. Perhaps Apple realizes that extensive testing up front leads to developer-and-user-infuriating delays and so has decided instead to use a method that lets them remove ‘bad’ apps when they find out that they truly are bad later on?
Now that argument doesn’t address the ethics of Apple controlling the environment to begin with. That’s an entirely different can of worms as JK points out
Heh. reminds me of over at Veoh, which uses their software as a download client. People who, um, happened to download stuff in violation of DMCA were shocked — shocked! — to find Veoh could reach in and *delete* those downloads.
Anyway, what Apple is doing is the future.
Welcome to it.
(Of course, when they do it to *me*, I’ll scream bloody murder!)
This just seems… wrong to me. Can you imagine the reaction that would be generated if Microsoft released something like this?
I wondered where my MMS/Videorecording app had gone!
I didn’t bother to read EULA, but aren’t they supposed to ask user agreement before uninstalling? What’s next? Deleting all the contacts who have Microsoft affiliation?
That pretty much seals it up for me. Looks like I’ll never be buying an iPhone.
Kevin, please read Terry White’s blog entry again. There is a 2nd update that shows it wasn’t that the program was blacklisted and deliberatly removed, but the way he bought it (on his iPhone over the air), and when he synced it to his computer (after it had been removed from the iTunes Store). It was the sync mechanism process that removed it, and since NetShare was no longer in the store, it could not be recovered. And yes, I still have my copy of NetShare.
Terry has admitted his situation looks like a case of timing, not invasive removal, and his account of the events bears that out. He claims to have downloaded Netshare to his iPhone on Saturday, but it was removed from the iTunes store by then. Removal from the store, however, does not mean all the data was pulled at once. I suspect Terry grabbed the app after it was unpublished, resulting in his thus far unique situation.
I downloaded Netshare straight to my iPhone on Friday, synced my iPhone and downloaded updates from iTunes a few times since then, and tested Netshare yesterday. Worked fine. That said, I did backup a copy of Netshare after reading Terry’s story.
I guess I really need to read that iTunes EULA that I clicked through yesterday. Fortunately I kept a pdf of it.
Well it will be interesting to see where this goes and what the full story is. But I’m sure everyone would give MS the same benefit of the doubt if something like this happened, right? Right? All I hear are crickets…
Why would a general purpose blacklisting file be referenced from CoreLocation? Isn’t it more likely to be a location blacklist?
T Man: For all the speculation that Apple could remove apps, we seem to have forgotten that Microsoft already does. Microsoft releases a software removal tool with every Windows update.
Sumocat: Are you referring to the “Malicious Software Removal Tool”? That is a tool that removes known malware, hardly comparable – and even then you can choose not to run it.
Bruno: You obviously didn’t bother to investigate the URL posted on iPhoneAtlas.
@Sumocat: Even if it was a case of timing, it seems a little bit unsavory that during a sync/backup, iTunes can decide to remove the software. He *was* at some point able to use the software, and it’s now disappeared.
I will have to admit, it’s a little curious that nobody else has reported the same thing; what are the odds that NOBODY else downloaded it OTA when it was offered for a second time and then synced the phone with the computer after it was pulled?
bluemonq: “it seems a little bit unsavory that during a sync/backup, iTunes can decide to remove the software” — if there was a decision to remove the software during sync. He downloaded it on Saturday. Reports of Netshare being pulled the second time came in Friday night. I can believe the file was still there for him to download, but I did everything he did just at different times, as did others. Unless Terry is being singled out, it looks like a fluke.
At the very least it looks like another bug to me. Does anything actually work on the iPhone?
Hi Kevin!
DaringFireball has a short article that may interest you:
http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/core_location_blacklist
Roger Nolan asked about this very point in his comment above – though it got lost in the ‘noise’.
Hopefully even more information will appear that will clarify whats actually going on with the ‘blacklist’ issue you posted about.
Rock on!
peter
I still hae my iPhone but I bought a Tilt when this news came out. All those things you were counting on someday…a real GPS app, Slinplayer, etc…none of that is a given anymore. Who knows what Apple will do? Even worse than those apps never appearing would be having them in the store and, months later, Apple deleting them from the phone. No no, screw that. I’ve also stopped developing for the iPhone because this is all obviously about money. AT&T has a LOT more than the authors of NetShare (or most other apps, I’m sure) and if AT&T says it disappears, by god it disappears. If I write something and, months later, someone else releases something similiar and doesn’t want me eating into sales, can they send Apple a check and I disappear? Who’s to say? Actually, Apple is and they’re not saying a damn thing. So screw ‘em. Until I have some assurance that developing for the iPhone isn’t a waste of my time and energy, I’m putting it into something else. Get your sh*t together soon, Apple. It’s not like you were first or the best.