Comments on: Apple Rejects/Removes Unity-built Games to Protect User Privacy

By: cheat man

cheat man — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:39:52 +0000

To much gaming is bad for your health. you will get fat! there are loads of other things you can do in life. but still a great story

By: IGenius

IGenius — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:37:18 +0000

"That’s one reason I’m [happy] apple is such a stickler on approvals"

Huh? Apple approved Spyware for your iPhone! WTF are you talking about? Apple being "a stickler" seems to give you no protection, given tat they have approved multiple pieces of Spyware.

And besides, if there were any other mainstream place to get apps, it would be YOUR decision whether or not to install them. You gain nothing by Apple being "sticklers", and yet you lose choice. Why does that make you happy again?

By: hand me the gun and ask me again

hand me the gun and ask me again — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:40:05 +0000

so where apps removed from actual phones or just the app store ?

By: Vergaparato

Vergaparato — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:52:12 +0000

So what other phones have apps like this if any?

By: Temeto Mipito

Temeto Mipito — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:36:27 +0000

That’s one reason I’m apple is such a stickler on approvals

By: Carademiverga

Carademiverga — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:33:56 +0000

So are there any apps like this currently in the app store?

By: Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:29:52 +0000

Let’s keep it on-topic folks and discuss the story, not each other. We appreciate everyone’s time, and their understanding. Thanks!

By: Jordan Wan

Jordan Wan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:35:52 +0000

Just a clarification, I was talking about the address book framework. Which makes it possible to retrieve any phone number stored in the phone book.

If the Unity “hack” allowed for retrieving the owners phone number which was not stored in the address book this is definitely a cause for concern.

However Unity appears to have already fixed this issue, and developers that have built under the new version are still being rejected: http://toucharcade.com/2009/11/12/ravensword-and-many-other-unity-powered-games-rejected-by-apple/

I hope for them that Apple will begin to approve Unity based apps again as long as they are built with the new version.

By: Jordan Wan

Jordan Wan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:26:25 +0000

Apple may have other motives for removing apps based on the Unity platform, and for the record I agree with removing Storm8 if they are violating privacy.

However without Unity these actions are still possible even through the official public APIs.

By: Jordan Wan

Jordan Wan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:24:31 +0000

I think that it should be noted in this article that there is actually no requirement to build a game in with the Unity platform in order to retrieve phone numbers and submit them to a server.

Although Storm8 may have been using Unity to do this, from what I understand, such functionality is already available to programmers using public APIs and without Unity.