Apple briefly shut down the distribution of Google’s mobile app on its iOS App Store. The computer giant and iPhone maker is known for running a tight ship on its mobile operating system for its devices. The moment they noticed that Google may have committed an app distribution violation on its platform, Apple disabled all iOS versions of Google’s app suite on Thursday.
The warning light came on following Google’s deactivation of its Screenwise Meter on iOS. This exclusive app monitored how users used the iPhones it had been installed in, as allowed for by enterprise certificates given by Apple to companies with iOS apps.
Any hint that the certificate is exploited to distribute apps, however, gets attention.
Google briefly disabled on iOS by Apple
The Verge reports that Google has followed in the footsteps of social media giant Facebook in feeling the iron rule of Apple regarding app distribution policies. Immediately after the revoking of Google’s enterprise certificate, some of the service’s apps such as Gmail, Hangouts, and Maps stopped working on iOS.
Earlier this week, Apple also did the same to Facebook regarding its research app, disabling its own suite of services on iOS according to The Washington Post. It was only around late Thursday afternoon that whatever issues Apple may have found with both Google and Facebook were fixed.
As a result, both companies regained their enterprise program certificates and their iOS internal apps are all working again.
Apple’s iOS violation hunt is not some bout of overprotectiveness for their platform but is justified by some of their earlier investigations. Alex Fajkowski, an iOS developer, discovered that several net companies including Amazon used the blanket of the Apple enterprise certificate to distribute apps to consumers without asking for their permission.
This is tantamount to a privacy breach.
Apple trying to police data privacy on iOS
Based on this trend of clamping down on big internet companies like Google and Facebook, Apple has taken the forefront in resolving the rise of consumer data collection incidents. It does not mean, however, that the decades-old legendary computing giant is all set to be the solo privacy enforcer of its corner of the internet.
Apple also has its own digital security issues to take care of.
Outside of Apple, however, other online companies have also been steering clear of working with Google for one reason or other. Last year, Epic Games decided to move the mobile app version of their hit game title “Fortnite” from Google Play Store to its own website. This was to avoid the distribution fee Google levies on all apps available in their store.
