Garden wall keeps getting higher
No sideloading because “security”
It’s for your own good, we swear
This shit happens
Reason number - oh, hell, I’ve lost count at this point - why anything mobile app store owners say about their service should be taken with a grain of salt.
All the sacrifices of having a heavily gated garden run by one company for access to software totally worth it for keeping us safe amiright?
VTB Bank has been heavily sanctioned by the U.S. government for years, forcing the state-owned institution to rely on shell developer accounts and disguised apps to bypass Apple’s strict ban on sanctioned entities.
The app will almost certainly be pulled soon, but it’s always surprising that existing systems in place sometimes miss detecting apps disguised like this.
illegally sanctioned by the imperialist U.S. government
Thats better
True, but “Russia bad.”
Not saying America is good but Russia did invade another country so they should be under sanctions just like the USA should be as well
But Apple is so strict with their store how could something like this possibly happen? /s
Haha. This happens so often, people have no idea. Every Russian bank does this, they publish seemingly unrelated apps under unrelated App Store dev accounts, share the links on their socials as fast as possible before the apps get taken down, then they just repeat the process when they need to update their apps. I guess generally they don’t pop up on global/US rankings but still, people use them and they get taken down all the time.
Why all the effort though? Can’t people use their website on mobile?
Push notifications and having an icon on the home screen is important, I guess. Most Russian banks did improve their mobile websites but generally, people still prefer apps.
Prediction: Apple and Google appstores will require developers to submit their source repo to a ‘private’ LLM that will analyze it for bad behavior, then build, sign, and submit the binary. Microsoft won’t be far behind for desktop apps.
Best of luck to us devs.
I’ve never understood where all this pressure is coming from. Do idiots blame apple and microsoft when they download and run a virus that wipes out their system? You know, instead of realizing they fucked up and learning from it?
It’s not about idiots :) Corporations and governments just want more control on your life. And “protection from malware” (as well as “child safety”) is just an excuse and manipulation so that human life to increasingly belong to the corporations.
Tech idea #8545764 that sounds like it could maybe do some good if only the entire industry and those responsible for regulating them weren’t malicious actors.
