Apple has advertised applications in a local app store that developers consider problematic. The programs are so-called relaxation apps that ASMR connect with “digital slime”. That alone wouldn’t be objectionable, but some of the programs cost over $ 10 a week, reports the developer Beau Nouvelle on Twitter. So you could call it a subscription trap.

The apps were published as part of an editorial by the app store team that was displayed in the software store’s Australian branch. It names a number of similar programs. Some of them “do nothing,” says Nouvelle. This is not the first time that he has noticed such contributions. The editors also seem to have not really assessed the apps themselves, as some of them have extremely bad ratings.

Enormous sales

Apple always stresses that its app review team ensures that fraud and malware are kept out of the app store. Yet in the past it was more common for problematic programs to pack it into stores, as an analysis by a US newspaper showed. Some of these apps generate enormous sales and even land at the top of the sales charts.

Apple is marketing the App Store as a particularly secure and trustworthy point of contact for purchasing software, reported the Washington Post – In many cases, users are not even prepared for such scams and are lulled into a false sense of security. Apple said in a statement to the newspaper that the company wanted to “learn” further, “improve its practices” and “invest the necessary resources” to take action against such apps.

Again and again scams

In the spring, real scam apps were discovered in the App Store that even advertised that they were “recommended” by Apple via pop-ups. The app review team did not initially notice this either. Developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who with Apple in the legal dispute about app non-approvals // www.heise.de / meinung / Pro-Contra-Ist-App-Sideloading-eine-Hazard-6148161.html: published a Pro & Contra.

(bsc)