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Elon Musk claims Apple has threatened to remove the Twitter app

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Elon Musk went on a rant against Apple, Twitter’s top advertiser, on Monday after claiming that the company threatened to remove the social media network from its App Store without any clarification and had pretty much-stopped marketing on Twitter.

Apple
Image Source: republicworld.com

The rant highlighted the enormous power that Apple, the world’s biggest firm, possesses over the fate of the world’s richest man’s Twitter gamble. The rant also hinted at Apple’s potential role as a check on Musk’s chaotic reign at Facebook; Apple has previously annulled App Store permissions from companies that violated its security protocols or supported violence and other troublesome content.

If Twitter is removed from the App Store, new users will be unable to install the app on their iPhones and iPads, and current users will be unable to access updates. The accused threat tends to add to the marketer pressure, staff departures, and regulatory scrutiny that Musk is facing as he pursues to overhaul years of Twitter guidelines and account expulsions in his quest to promote “free speech.”

Read More: Twitter Closes Brussels Office As Elon Musk’s Reforms Spread To Europe

Under a document analysed by The Washington Post that was prepared from internal Twitter data, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the first quarter, paying 48 USD million on advertisements on the social network. That quarter, Apple’s spending accounted for much more than 4 per cent of Twitter’s revenue.

Elon Musk attempted to pressurize the firm and CEO Tim Cook in several tweets for halting spending during the holiday shopping season.

Requests for comment were not returned by Apple. Musk’s tweets sought to rekindle long-standing concerns and political scrutiny about Apple’s market dominance. He posted a link to a 2020 parody video made by Apple for Epic Games criticising the App Store as a “monopoly.”

The video is a parody of Apple’s famous “1984” Super Bowl commercial, which Epic, the creator of the Fortnite video game, launched after it was removed from Apple’s store for violating its in-app payment rules. He also asked his and over 119 million followers to vote on whether Apple should publish all censorship acts it has carried out that affect its customers.

“Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?,” Musk tweeted, with the caption “Spoiler alert.”

Musk hinted in a tweet that he may go to war with Apple.

Source: washingtonpost.com

“This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead,” Musk said later.

Source: news18.com
Apple

Apple launching its online store in India on September 23.

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There’s some good news coming the way of Apple fanatics in India! The tech giant announced today that it would be unveiling an Apple Store in India on the 23rd of September via online means.  The online store will feature a slew of Apple products. While Apple products mostly sell online in India via Amazon and Flipkart, Bloomberg reported that the company was planning on establishing a unique store in time for Diwali. Furthermore, for the first time, the store will offer customers directly to clients throughout the country. Here’s a look at everything you need to know about the announcement, and why Apple fans are excited.

Apple Online Store in India

Apple’s online store will go live on 23rd September and will offer its full range of products. The store will offer all clients the premium experience that clients around the world receive. The model will try to replicate the service delivered at Apple stores worldwide with the help of an experienced online team. Deirdre O’Brien, who serves as the VP of Apple Retail and People, said that the company is proud to be expanding in India. He also said that the team is looking forward to serving its Indian customers in the best way possible. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has left everyone relying heavily on technology, the company felt it was the right time to make the transition. Brien said that the team hopes bringing the Apple Store to India would help their customers during such a vital time.

Apple Online Store
Image Source: techcrunch.com

Digital Transformation

The Apple online store will serve as a convenient one-stop shopping destination for all fans of the American tech company. The shop will have Apple Specialists in place to help customers with choosing the right products and explaining technical details. They will also help customers with configuring their devices and setting up newly bought ones to suit their requirements. The store will also help customers get advice, learn about new products, and receive guidance on a variety of matters in both Hindi and English. 

Special Features

The Apple Store also features various financing and trade-in programs, helping make their products more affordable. For instance, students can shop for iPads and Macs at exceptional prices, and also receive discounts on AppleCare+ plans and other accessories. By October, clients can expect the store to start free Today at Apple sessions online. The sessions will be led by Creative Pros from local areas and will focus on music and photography. Also, the store will make gift wrapping options and personalized engraving available by the festive season. Engravings on AirPods will be available in the following languages;

  • English
  • Hindi
  • Marathi
  • Kannada
  • Gujarati
  • Bengali,
  • Tamil
  • Telugu

For engraving on the iPad and Apple Pencil, the language available will be English for now. To keep with modern requirements of health and safety regulations, the Apple team will enable contactless delivery for all services. Orders which do not need a signature to complete will be left at the door, while the ones that do will be completed via verbal confirmation. BlueDart will handle the delivery fulfillment within 24 to 72 hours of order placement by following all the required safety protocols.

Other Efforts and Investments

Apple has been a presence in India for over two decades now. The American tech giant has invested in creating and sustaining over 900,000 jobs across the country. Furthermore, Apple’s App Design and Development Accelerator provides frequent support to local developers in Bengaluru. Indian apps have become crucial now, with ones like AI-based Wysa helping provide mental wellness support to millions. Similarly, YogiFi has become quite popular due to its innovative use of computer vision to help with posture-correction. The app also makes use of Machine Learning to curate personalized yoga plans and programs, helping and encouraging people to stay fit during this pandemic.

While the COVID-19 threat looms over the country, Apple is doing all it can to provide local support to organizations promoting remote learning. It will be interesting to see how big a hit this store becomes as Indians will now get a taste of the exemplary Apple service for the first time. Also, with reports stating that the tech giant plans on unveiling physical stores in Mumbai and Bengaluru from next year, this will act as a test to see whether the idea holds true.

Apple Pulls Off Third-Party Screen Time Apps from Apple Store Violating its Privacy Policies

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Apple launched its screen time monitoring feature for all its iOS users and following that many other third-party developers also released their screen time monitoring and parental control apps. But it seems that Apple is not happy about it, as it has abruptly removed a few such apps from its iOS stores.

apple screen time feature
Image Source: gadgethacks.com

Noticeably, Apple has built its screen time monitoring feature only for the iOS users, whereas the third-party apps are compatible with both iOS and Android having better features than the Apple’s screen time monitoring features. Reportedly, iOS’s feature has flaws like only a few methods of blocking apps for kids, less-granular scheduling, as well as in many cases the kids were able to modify the filtering tools themselves.

But it is not that the company is insecure about the popularity of its screen time feature, but in a blog post, Apple mentioned the name of some apps including Balance Screen Time by Moment Health and Verizon Smart Family, as the best parental control apps apart from its own, giving the reasons for removing the other third-party apps from Apple store.

“We recently removed several parental control apps from the App Store, and we did it for a simple reason: they put users’ privacy and security at risk. It’s important to understand why and how this happened,” said Apple in the blog post.

According to Apple, the removal of the apps from its Apple Store has been presented as a step out of insecurity. But those third-party apps were using Mobile Device Management (MDM), an invasive technology, which makes the apps to access the users’ some of the very personal information, including location, email address, gallery, browsing history, etc. The company has been investigating this MDM technology since 2017, and by the mid of 2017, it had made some strict guidelines on the usage of MDM in the non-enterprize apps.

On the other hand, the third-party companies which got their apps removed from the Apple store, have claimed that there were no clear indications or notification from Apple on the pulling off their apps from the Apple store. Most of the companies have admitted that 80 per cent of their revenues come from Apple Store.

But Apple is confident that those apps were a bigger threat to its customers’ privacy and data security as those apps had violated its guidelines. Though the company is simply following its rules for the safety of its ‘users’ data’, a few companies including Kidslox and Qustodio as well as Kaspersky Lab filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union, after Apple pulled off their screen time apps from Apple Store.

Apple Warns the App Developers to Stop Recording User Screens Without Permission

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TechCrunch had reported that many companies having their iOS apps are using the analytics services to record the users’ activities over their iPhone without their knowledge. Upon this Apple has asked the app developers, to disclose the analytic code to the user, or remove the code from their iOS apps, else Apple will remove the apps from Apple Store, itself.

Using the code, these apps capture the users’ data, like their taps, swipes, and even records their full screen, without giving a hint of that to the user. Recording such activities is called Session Replaying. According to App Store’s Review Guidelines, Apple completely prohibits Session Replay feature, without the proper consent of the user.

An Apple spokesperson wrote in an email, “Protecting user privacy is paramount in the Apple ecosystem. Our App Store Review Guidelines require that apps request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.”

He further added, “We have notified the developers that are in violation of these strict privacy terms and guidelines, and will take immediate action if necessary.”

To capture the users’ activities through the apps, the developers embed code from a third-party company, in this case, those apps used the Glassbox for Session Replaying. Tech Crunch gave a few names that were using Session Replay feature in their apps, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com, Air Canada, Hollister, Expedia, and Singapore Airlines.

Those companies are violating Apple’s guidelines as there is no mention of users’ screen recording in their Privacy Policy. Although there has been no confirmation from those companies on capturing the users’ data, Apple has already warned one of those companies to remove the analytics code from their apps. Apple wrote in an email to the developer, “Your app uses analytics software to collect and send user or device data to a third party without the user’s consent. Apps must request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.”

Apple has also asked the companies, that wants to keep the user experience analytic code embedded in their apps, to include a little red icon on the upper left corner of the iPhone screen, to let people be aware of the apps recording their screen activities.

Upon the whole screen capturing issue, Glassbox has also taken its dig on the matter and has said, “TechCrunch’s piece was interesting but also misleading. Glassbox and its customers are not interested in ‘spying’ on consumers.” The company further said. “Our goals are to improve online customer experiences and to protect consumers from a compliance perspective. Since its inception, Glassbox has helped organizations improve millions of customer experiences by providing tools that record and analyze user activity on websites and apps. This information helps companies better understand how consumers are using their services, and where and why they are struggling. We are strong supporters of user privacy and security. Glassbox provides its customers with the tools to mask every element of personal data. We firmly believe that our customers should have clear policies in place so that consumers are aware that their data is being recorded — just as contact centres inform users that their calls are being recorded.”

The matter clearly is not about Glassbox but is about how the customers’ personal data is being compromised. Apple is serious about the privacy of the data that those apps are capturing, so those app developers must do something in this regard in order to keep their apps running on the iPhone.