Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), delete hundreds of applications from App Store after a company specializing in IT security discovered that an advertising agency uses private APIs that collect confidential information about users using the company's iDevices Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), daily life.
More precisely, we are talking about the retrieval of information regarding: their email addresses, the serial numbers of the terminals, the serial numbers of the accessories used and the lists of applications from the terminals, the data being secretly sent to the servers of the respective advertising agency.
Apple prohibits the use of private APIs in the applications published in the App Store and prohibits the collection of certain types of identification data about iDevices, so after checking the report of the IT security company, it began to delete hundreds of applications from the App Store.
Youmi is the company that developed the private APIs, so far 256 applications have been discovered that used them and were deleted by Apple, they were downloaded over 1 million times from the App Store, mainly by users from China.
WE'VE IDENTIFIED A GROUP OF APPS THAT ARE USING A THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING SDK, DEVELOPED BY YOUMI, A MOBILE ADVERTISING PROVIDER, THAT USES PRIVATE APIS TO GATHER PRIVATE INFORMATION, SUCH AS USER EMAIL ADDRESSES AND DEVICE IDENTIFIERS, AND ROUTE DATA TO ITS COMPANY SERVER. THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR SECURITY AND PRIVACY GUIDELINES. THE APPS USING YOUMI'S SDK HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE APP STORE AND ANY NEW APPS SUBMITTED TO THE APP STORE USING THIS SDK WILL BE REJECTED. WE ARE WORKING CLOSELY WITH DEVELOPERS TO HELP THEM GET UPDATED VERSIONS OF THEIR APPS THAT ARE SAFE FOR CUSTOMERS AND IN COMPLIANCE WITH OUR GUIDELINES BACK IN THE APP STORE QUICKLY.
Those from Apple claim that they are working with the affected developers to return their applications to the App Store, their number may increase if other titles or advertising platforms are discovered that violate the rules regarding the publication of applications in the App Store.
