censorship

Three 'censorship' stories April 2013 - October 2014

Chinese government apparently phishing iCloud account info with man-in-the-middle attack (Update: Apple confirms)

Benjamin Mayo Oct 20 2014 - 6:51 am PT

Update: Apple is aware of the attack, via CNBC. As expected, Apple’s own servers were not compromised.

Although unconfirmed, GreatFire is reporting that Apple is now the subject of Chinese government hacking attempts. According to the report, the government is using the institutional firewall to redirect traffic directed at iCloud.com to a fake page that resembles the iCloud.com interface almost perfectly.

Like other phishing attacks, this page is pretending to be Apple’s portal but instead intercepts entered usernames and passwords for other means. Although some browsers in China are set up to warn users about these kind of man-in-the-middle attacks, many don’t and (assumedly) many citizens disregard the warnings as the site appears quite genuine otherwise.

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‘Serious’ Game developers getting tripped up by rules and regs of Apple’s App Store

Zach Kahn Jun 21 2013 - 1:39 pm PT

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We’ve already detailed iOS 7’s support for MFi hardware game controllers as well as enhancements to in-game leaderboards, new turn-based game modes, and even new security measures to curb cheating, but with all of these great new additions to the platform we often wonder, ‘what really goes in to making a great iOS game?’ Moreover, while Apple’s App Store is designed to foster independent creativity and allow for any developer with a vision and talent to make it to the top of the charts, why is it that we often see the same old games flood the Top Paid and Top Free categories?

Polygon’s Tracey Lien asked the same question and gives us a handful of great insights into the world of iOS game development. It turns out that, with Apple’s strict App Store policies, making a game isn’t as easy as some might think. In her feature, Lien states that a number of ‘serious games’ have recently been rejected by Apple due to violating the App Store’s guidelines. This would appear to be business as usual as we’ve seen a plethora of apps — both games and otherwise — rejected from the App Store for violating the stringent guidelines, but Lien claims that many of the developers she spoke to have found the policies that they’ve been charged with violating often to be vague and/or completely subjective.

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Comixology, not Apple, responsible for not publishing controversial comic

Zac Hall Apr 10 2013 - 11:22 am PT

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via paperblog.com

Comixology CEO Dan Steinberge addressed the company’s customers today clarifying that Apple was not responsible for withholding its comic Saga #12 from the Comixology iOS app.

In the last 24 hours there has been a lot of chatter about Apple banning Saga #12 from our Comics App on the Apple App Store due to depictions of gay sex. This is simply not true, and we’d like to clarify.

As a partner of Apple, we have an obligation to respect its policies for apps and the books offered in apps. Based on our understanding of those policies, we believed that Saga #12 could not be made available in our app, and so we did not release it today.

In the last 24 hours there has been a lot of chatter about Apple banning Saga #12 from our Comics App on the Apple App Store due to depictions of gay sex. This is simply not true, and we’d like to clarify.

As a partner of Apple, we have an obligation to respect its policies for apps and the books offered in apps. Based on our understanding of those policies, we believed that Saga #12 could not be made available in our app, and so we did not release it today.

We did not interpret the content in question as involving any particular sexual orientation, and frankly that would have been a completely irrelevant consideration under any circumstance.

Given this, it should be clear that Apple did not reject Saga #12.

Steinberger went on to say that its decision to not publish Saga #12 was based on a more conservative interpretation of Apple’s guidelines.

After hearing from Apple this morning, we can say that our interpretation of its policies was mistaken. You’ll be glad to know that Saga #12 will be available on our App Store app soon.

Comixology’s apology wraps up what became a public contention against Apple and it’s App Store policies.

Anyone want to still blame Apple for the "chilling effect?" http://t.co/tfyEQyF0jh

— John Siracusa (@siracusa) April 10, 2013

For the record, I think there is a chilling effect, but only within the context of Apple's own store. That may or may not be bad for Apple.

— John Siracusa (@siracusa) April 10, 2013