Apple shutting down Facebook's internal iOS apps should serve as a reminder of the power Apple holds over the rest of us
and gets personal James Sanders / TechRepublic : Apple revokes Facebook's ability to deploy apps internally amid privacy scandal dispute Gordon Kelly / Forbes : Apple's New iPhones Have An Expensive Problem Rene Ritchie / iMore : iPhone XS pricing — Was it too damn high? Adam Rowe / TechCo : Apple Revokes Facebook's Employee-Only iOS Apps Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge : Months later, Facebook has updated its apps for the iPhone XS Max, XR, and new iPad Pros Tweets: Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : I thought I'd see how robust the parental control for Facebook's programme is. In less than five minutes I was able to sign up as a 14-year-old boy... with two kids. It required no proof of parental consent at all. I've just been sent a link to download the iOS app. http://twitter.com/... Josh Constine / @joshconstine : Facebook threatened Research app users with legal action for publicly discussing the VPN, I've learned, yet it claims there was “nothing secret about it”. David Carroll / @profcarroll : When reporters seek out users of Facebook Research App are they afraid to answer important questions about consent? Regardless, any families with EU citizens that used this app should file a complaint with the appropriate Data Protection Authority. http://twitter.com/... Jeremy Horwitz / @horwitz : If I was a Fortune 500 company and saw what Apple just did with Facebook and Google's enterprise certificates, today would be the end of iOS enterprise development, full stop, and I would reluctantly begin moving every internal app and employee over to Android. https://twitter.com/... Thorne / @existentialenso : There are sooooo many things I'm worried about with Big Tech. The fact that Apple has a strongly pro-user privacy stance (FaceTime bugs not withstanding) is one of the things that gives me some reassurance, e.g. Siri data can only be used to improve Siri. Alexa's is monetized. http://twitter.com/... Alasdair Allan / @aallan : Personally I'm just a bit more worried about Facebook spying on children than Apple stopping them? http://twitter.com/... Simon J / @simon818 : This would have been unnecessarily harsh if it had been any other app, but Apple did this knowing it would make a mess. It sends a message, and that message needed to be sent. Go apple. http://twitter.com/... Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : Another update relating to consent. FB statement said teens had provided parental consent before using the program. I asked FB what exactly that meant - signed form, scanned? - they said the vendors handled it. For at least one of the vendors, consent was basically a checkbox. Neil Cybart / @neilcybart : The Verge out with another really bad take. Summary of article: Apple is a monopoly and the way they care about user privacy should worry and scare you. http://www.theverge.com/... http://twitter.com/... Alex Heath / @alexeheath : It's a safe bet that Apple has never revoked a company as large as Facebook from its enterprise certificate program. There are probably thousands of devices running apps Facebook has sideloaded this way. Now anything FB does on iOS has to go through App Store review. Alex Heath / @alexeheath : “The incident highlights the astonishing power Apple can wield over other companies that rely on its platform, and is one of the most immediately disruptive consequences Facebook has faced thus far from its chain of scandals and missteps” http://twitter.com/... David Carroll / @profcarroll : Most tech reporters still haven't discovered GDPR Article 8 and recitals 38 and 58. There's no way that teens ‘consented’ to the requirements that Sandberg pledged to honor in Brussels last year. No effing way. http://gizmodo.com/... Charles Arthur / @charlesarthur : So Apple should just let it be a free-for-all where it can't enforce itrs contracts with developers (entered into freely by both sides) and wouldn't be able to kill malware? This is not a strong argument. http://twitter.com/... Kontra / @counternotions : The deplorable whitewashing of Facebook privacy abuse of iOS users by Sheryl Sandberg is prima facie evidence why the notion of asymmetrical individual consent is unworkable for consumer privacy protection. It's time to change the default. http://gizmodo.com/... Qwertyoruiop / @qwertyoruiopz : As much as Apple's power over what one may or may not do with their own device is certainly frightening, Facebook volountarily agreed to Apple's contracts. Two wrongs don't make a right. http://twitter.com/... Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : Moving quickly along the FB PR crisis timeline, folks:- Story breaks (well done @JoshConstine) - “They consented!” - “Nothing to see here, but we're stopping it...” - Angrily dispute certain details, ignore substance - Stamos?- “We owe it to our users to do better.” Christina Farr / @chrissyfarr : I once met a FB employee who described some recent criticism in positive terms: “you'd have to payout millions to get that kind of feedback on how to improve your product.” I was floored at this level of maturity. If relevant this person was British. http://twitter.com/... @chrismessina : This is such a big story. Gatekeepers gunna keep keepin' gates! http://twitter.com/... Will Strafach / @chronic : sounds like Sheryl Sandberg is lying. there is no evidence in the documents and agreements they provide to people of any sort of “rigorous consent flow” or anything being made “very clear” to folks. this response is simply not credible at all. https://twitter.com/... Nilay Patel / @reckless : Hi, I'm the nagging voice in the back of your head pointing out that it's pretty intense that Apple can simply decide to prevent people from running code on their phones Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Wrote about the Apple-Facebook shooting war and why we ought to be unsettled by Apple's Thanos-like power over every other company, even if in this case it exercised that power appropriately http://www.getrevue.co/... http://twitter.com/...