Comment by umvi
4 years ago
> And yet from my perspective your software is malware.
So don't buy/install it. But don't take away that choice from other people. I have a good married friend who uses parental control software on himself to reduce the temptation to look at porn. It basically just gives his wife access to his browsing history. Sure, he could bypass it a number of ways if he was really determined, but it's more about just raising the level of effort required so that impulsive usage is mitigated.
> So don't buy/install it. But don't take away that choice from other people.
It's not that simple. You are purposefully bringing up an extremely rare use case to detract from the fact that 99% of users of this software are going to be abusive parents who install it on their children's phones without consent. (Or heck, maybe even abusive spouses.) If parents are that concerned, even banning their children from "innocent" apps like Twitter or computer/phone use altogether is better than this invasive 1984-like software.
Designing systems that don't empower abusers is so, so incredibly important.
Completely separately, though, it's also the case that OP is essentially building an Internet-connected backdoor into the system that will have been permitted to monitor cross-app activity. Even if data is E2E encrypted, that doesn't mean the software is immune from vulnerabilities that could then piggyback on the elevated permissions given to the app. And OP being a bootstrapped developer without the resources to have robust security practices is a liability here. Apple's response to treat this as a vulnerability is reasonable.
(As a side note, if OP wanted to distribute source code and unsigned binaries, macOS would allow an end user to run that software, and that's a perfectly reasonable caveat emptor for me. But Apple is under no obligation to digitally vouch for software that enables abusers and hackers.)
I mean, you can run any binary you want on MacOS if you disable Gatekeeper or go into the security settings and allow an exception for it. The developer doesn't need to be known or notarized by Apple. If you trust the source, go for it. If it's your wife or child's computer and you're installing spyware on it anyway, why worry?
> install it on their children's phones without consent
That's a curious phrasing. Are you implying a parent needs consent from their minor child to install something, anything they deem appropriate, on "their" phone?
I'm not the person you were replying to, but yes. That would be an extreme breach of trust and especially with the level of detail that's being collected here, effectively removing all privacy, it's just not ok. This could have disastrous consequences for ex. closeted LGBTQ+ youth with unsupportive parents who could kick them out of the house or worse if they found out.
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I would feel deeply uncomfortable if a parent (or anyone, really) were able to essentially listen in on every conversation I have. A tool that goes this far with monitoring really needs to be installed with consent from all parties.
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I'm not at all convinced this is an extremely rare use case. There are hundreds of thousands of Christian pastors, priests and ministers of religion who would probably find this very useful. There are a lot of Christians who would also find this useful, for themselves.
> You are purposefully bringing up an extremely rare use case to detract from the fact that 99% of users of this software are going to be abusive parents
What exactly is abusive about me wanting to know if my 6 year old is watching porn?
Are parents that signed up for Youtube Kids abusive, too? Is Google abusive for filtering the videos? And are all those who shared articles about how porn was showing up in YTKids abusive for letting parents know that their children might have been exposed to mature material?
I think there's a big qualitative difference between having a Youtube Kids profile and filtering access to certain content versus completely negating a child's digital privacy like this. It actually reminds me of that one Black Mirror episode[1].
Ethically, I agree with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child[2], which states in Article 16:
>No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy [...].
>The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkangel_(Black_Mirror)
[2] https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
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OP clearly does not have children in 2021.
> So don't buy/install it. But don't take away that choice from other people.
You mean the choice to install malware on other people's devices? Why shouldn't it be taken away?
Reveal to a loved one, someone of their choosing. It's not revealing it to the world or even to Truple.
> The whole purpose of this software is to the reveal the private life of others. Why should people be able to install malware on other people's devices? People shouldn't be allowed to do it to other peoples devices. People should be allowed to install software on their down devices, for their kids or for their own use to help with online behaviors/addictions.
If it's your own device, I guess it's fine. I'm not sure I would consider my child's phone to be my device though. I certainly wouldn't have tolerated that sort of behavior from my parents when I was a kid myself.
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It would be a bit less of an issue if Apple allowed apps outside of their store to be installed to begin with.
Off topic, I knew marriages could be toxic but this is peak. If you don't trust your partner 100%+ the marriage is already dead IMHO.
My friend doesn't trust himself not to look at porn without a safety rail, so he bought a safety rail and gave his wife the key, so to speak. How does that make his marriage toxic?
I think this is what he told you to save face about being in a toxic relationship. Unless he has a problem or is looking at something illegal, I'd say the average person looks at porn sometimes and that there is nothing wrong with it. Even if he was being upfront and honest, why would he put something like this on his partner? It makes no sense. I have married friends and have been married for 21 years, I've never heard of anything like this in a healthy relationship.
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