On December 9, Apple removed over 1,000 applications from the iTunes store following complaints of suspicious programs. The Chinese application development company, Molinker will no longer be allowed to sell software on Apple’s online store.
Most of Molinker’s products were low quality copies of well known applications already available on iTunes. Nevertheless, Molinker was able to keep its programs on the most popular and even staff’s pick lists. The programs consistently had very favorable ratings in reviews. Apple officials now believe that Molinker had offered promotional codes and even free copies of apps to those who willing to write 5-star favorable reviews in return.
iPhoneography, an independent blog group that offers reviews on iPhone photo applications was the first to become suspicious and contact Apple. They noticed that reviews often offered little or poorly written text. In addition, mostly 5-star ratings were posted, with no middle range views, and a few poor reviews from legitimate users. Tracking the usernames, iPhoneography discovered that the reviews were only written for Molinker applications, an unusual trend.
In response, Apple quietly removed all of Molinker’s applications. There is no word on whether refunds will be given to scammed users, seeing that Apple receives a considerable percent of iTunes purchases.
The root of the problem is similar to frauds taking place on Facebook and MySpace which allow outside software developers. Often, the extensive volume of applications does not undergo extensive review. Without quality controls in place, users can easily become victims purchasing applications from reputable sites such as iTunes
Apple would be wise to establish review criteria for new and existing applications.
Rather than allow ratings to determine software legitimacy, it should ensure proper contact channels to report suspicious or low-quality knockoff software.
Users should also be vigilant before purchasing online software. Ratings can provide useful information, but they are not always credible. Molinker was successful in a form of social engineering, luring new customers with seemingly favorable reviews. Even large sites such as the iTunes store are subject to scam by the very nature of their setup.
Apple expels 1,000 apps after store scam
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/09/wired.apple.apps/index.html
Thursday, December 10, 2009
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In light of so many outside software creators taking advantage of successful websites, I would think legislation would begin to form limiting such activity. It really is unbelievable how vulnerable these websites have become. Hackers are targeting websites that have large numbers of users- iTunes, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of these companies that cybercriminals are infiltrating their customers private information data.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly did these applications do to the iPhone or iPod that downloads them? Because though creating a low quality application and fraudulently rating it as a better product is unethical, what harm was this doing to the application users? I think problems such as this with allowing outside companies to develop and sell applications for Apple products creates a serious liability for Apple. It is there responsibility, therefore, to monitor outside applications to ensure they are legitimate and not harmful to consumers. Investigation of companies and the applications they are generating is necessary to ensure quality control by Apple. I'm sure that even though Molinker is the largest one to be caught with over 1,000 applications, there are a ton of companies doing the same thing flying under the radar.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think that it is disappointing that Apple completely missed this activity. While I realize that it would be extremely difficult, if at all possible, to monitor these reviews. It's easy to give an app a five-star rating without offering much written content, and it's hard to determine the legitimacy of such a review. But at the same time, I would think that Apple would have some monitoring/filtering system for the incoming apps, so as the weed out the knock-offs. I think that this whole case is not so much a problem of wrecking havoc on the iPhone/iPod that downloaded the app; rather, I think that it's more an indication of some degree of negligence on Apple's part, since their customers got jipped on purchasing bad apps. I'm surprised that there wasn't more news on this event, but I imagine that Apple would want to keep this as quiet as possible.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, the users are also at fault. Again, with poor/few reliable reviews, it's difficult to know if you are downloading a good app, but users should exercise a lot of caution when they choose to download things onto their machines. Yeah, I think that Apple should do their best to protect their customers against these risks, but these risks are sort of inherit, nonetheless, when you are downloading *anything*.
This is a tricky situation for Apple to deal with. On the one hand, they want many companies to be able to sell applications as to have a diverse software pool. On the other hand however, when you allow open software production, problems like this with knockoffs and low quality products will undoubtedly arise. Ideally, Apple would be able to set aside resources devoted to monitoring applications prior to release. However, in a competitive business world, it is more than likely not feasible to be able to devote this much attention to software development. I would think that the legitimate companies producing software would have a vested interest in making sure others, like Molinker, did not simply copy their product and would protect against that, however this does not seem to be the case.
ReplyDelete