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Apple Officially Bans Scammy Antivirus Apps From iOS App Store (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tightening-bolts dept.

Fake "virus scanning" apps have plagued the iOS App Store for a while, and Apple seems to finally be banning them once and for all in updated developer guidelines it published last week. From a report: The updated developer guidelines, compiled by Paul Hudson over at Hacking With Swift, now includes a ban on apps that claim to "including content or services that it does not actually offer" -- something that includes any iOS virus scanning apps, seeing as it wasn't possible to scan for viruses on iOS with third party apps, since iOS's sandboxing prevents applications from directly interacting with each other or the core of the iOS operating system.

3 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. What took them so long? by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Virus scanners have never been possible on iOS due to each app not bring able to read the disk folders of other apps. So why have Apple been approving apps that claim to do so for years?

    1. Re: What took them so long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To avoid the complaints on Slashdot about the tyranny of the wall garden.

  2. Your mistake by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Would not be the first felony apple committed. E-book price fixing and collusion.

    That would be Amazon, Apple tried to stop that felony and was punished for it.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley