The App Store prevented potentially fraudulent operations worth over $ 1,5 billion in 2020

The App Store prevented potentially fraudulent operations worth over $ 1,5 billion in 2020

Apple's press release is timely, in the middle of the Epic Games vs Apple trial, in which it is discussed whether Apple should allow alternative stores (as Epic wants) and the news of the proliferation of applications that scam users with abusive subscription plans or applications that scam users.

So Apple has produced an official press release, outside the trial, where it exposes some data (not contradicted, it is his word) on the alleged effectiveness of the surveillance and the human work that takes place in the supervision of the App Store.



These are the data they provide:

  • In 2020 alone, Apple's combination of cutting-edge technology and professional expertise protected users from potential fraudulent transactions worth more than $ 1,5 billion. In addition to preventing the misuse of money, information and time, the company has managed to keep nearly a million dangerous and vulnerable apps out of reach.
  • In 2020, his team helped more than 180.000 new developers roll out their proposals. 
  • In 2020, nearly one million problematic apps and one million updates were rejected or removed for these and other reasons.
  • In 2020 alone, the evaluation team rejected more than 48.000 apps because they contained hidden or undocumented functionality and more than 150.000 because they spam, copy to other apps, or manipulate users to make purchases.
  • In 2020, around 95.000 apps were removed from the App Store due to fraudulent maneuvers. 
  • In 2020, the app review team turned down more than 215.000 for privacy concerns.
  • Since 2020, Apple has processed over 1 billion ratings and over 100 million reviews. Of all of them, more than 250 million have been eliminated for not following the rules of moderation.
  • If a developer blatantly violates the rules or repeats, they are banned from the Apple Developer Program and their account closed. In 2020, Apple closed 470.000 accounts and denied the registration of 205.000 suspicious developers, preventing them from submitting potentially fraudulent apps to the App Store.
  • In the past 12 months, Apple has detected and blocked nearly 110.000 illegitimate apps from stores targeting piracy. These stores distribute malicious software that is often designed to look like popular apps or that modifies other apps without their developers' consent to bypass the App Store's security protections.
  • In the past month, Apple has blocked more than 3,2 million illegal app distribution attempts through the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. 
  • In 2020 alone, Apple deleted 244 million of these accounts for abusive and fraudulent activity. In addition, it rejected 424 million account creation attempts because they showed signs of this type of activity.
  • In 2020, the combination of cutting-edge technology and human intervention prevented more than three million improperly obtained cards from being used to purchase stolen goods and services.

Comment

Apple, as if someone accuses it, defends itself (or explains, to put it mildly) justifying what it does, but it doesn't explain why things it doesn't do happen, such as silences in replies, the delay in withdrawing an application that has been reported as fake, abusive, or directly criminal, or arbitrary withdrawals of perfectly valid apps.



Of course, Apple works in its App Store, no one denies it. The question is if you do enough, when you repeat over and over again:


"The App Store is the safest place to find and download apps."

It's not like there aren't any guards in the mall. The point is that if there are robberies, robberies and murders in the mall every day, you need to be more vigilant, especially if your slogan is "our mall is the safest place in the world to buy".

It's clear that stopping 99% of the bad guys is fine, and that's what you'd expect from anyone looking to run a profitable business. The question, when you make billions of dollars with the "shed", is whether 99% is enough, especially if someone looks at the lists of the most downloaded, top rated, etc. apps. can detect fraud in broad daylight.


Apple's preventative measures may work. But it is clear to anyone who knows that reactive measures (those taken to eliminate those who have managed to skip preventive measures) do not.

And to this Apple is not responding.

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