Facebook and Google aren’t the only companies exploiting Apple’s Enterprise program. Another investigation by TechCrunch adds porn and gambling apps to the list.
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Enterprise Shenanigans
Apple’s Enterprise program is, as the name suggests, meant for enterprise apps. But companies are taking advantage of it. The screening process for the program doesn’t appear to be strong, and companies have been able to either trick the program directly, or piggyback a crappy app onto a legitimate app.
From the start, Steve Jobs wanted the App Store to be family friendly. If you want to access adult content you’ll have to go to Safari. Some people don’t want iOS to have this parenting quality, and that’s okay.
But sideloading apps with these certificates is a security risk. And we saw that when the Facebook and Google apps used those apps to vacuum up all of your data. And as it stands right now, Apple’s Enterprise program is largely based on good faith.
Developers simply have to fill out an online form and pay $299 to Apple, as detailed in this guide from Calvium. The form merely asks developers to pledge they’re building an Enterprise Certificate app for internal employee-only use, that they have the legal authority to register the business, provide a D-U-N-S business ID number, and have an up to date Mac… With just a few lies on the phone and web plus some Googleable public information, sketchy developers can get approved for an Apple Enterprise Certificate.
During its investigation TechCrunch was able to use a standard, non-jailbroken iPhone to download these apps. In total 34 porn and real-money gambling apps were found.
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