Apple pulls the plug on a handful of prominent parental control apps
Last week, Apple came under fire for suddenly removing several third-party parental control applications from the App Store, and within a post shared to the official Apple Newsroom, the company has explained the applications removed supposedly “put users’ privacy and security at risk” by using a technology called Mobile Device Management (“MDM”).
Developers who’s apps were pulled quickly responded by claiming that, Apple was removing these types of apps from the platform, after integrating similar features into the iOS system, such as Screen Time and more. This comes at a time when other apps like Spotify, and even upcoming presidential candidates have been accusing Apple of using their dominance and ownership of the app store – to stifle competition.
It has been said, by The New York Times, that the apps that have been ‘targeted’ have been apps that challenge a feature that is already present on the operating system.
Within the same press release, Apple responded to the rumours about competition stating, ‘Contrary to what The New York Times reported over the weekend, this isn’t a matter of competition’. Apple cited that the reason behind the ‘sudden’ removal, was due to privacy and security issues that the apps failed to rectify.