Comment by WatchDog
8 months ago
Some more context from the linked github issue[0], the app was removed because of European sanctions against Russia, it seems that the app developer who now lives in Malta, has a Russian background.
What is interesting is that it's Apple enforcing these sanctions, rather than AltStore.
The amount of control that Apple exercises over these alternative app stores, really does seem to be against the spirit of the DMA.
[0]: https://github.com/XITRIX/iTorrent/issues/401#issuecomment-3...
That’s also weird to me. I don’t have current 2025 info on the sanctions, but back in early 2022 I had a colleague with Russian citizenship who was living in Ireland (with proper permission to live and work - I think even permanent residence). He was exempted from the nationality-based sanctions because of his EU residence, although he did have to prove it to e.g. his banks.
Do the sanctions applicable in 2025 apply even to EU residents of Russian nationality or origin without such an exemption, or is this person covered by more narrow sanctions like one which name him individually, or is Apple going beyond the sanctions rules here for a store they don’t even operate?
Edit: reading the linked GitHub discussion more closely, it seems that he expects to benefit from the same exemption as I was describing, with the problem being twofold: one, the developer had neglected to update his personal info in Apple’s dev portal - not Apple’s fault, at least assuming that sanctions enforcement is their job at all in this scenario. But two, Apple has taken a long time to react to this guy providing proof of his Maltese residence, so that’s on them for being an unresponsive bottleneck.
> But two, Apple has taken a long time to react to this guy providing proof of his Maltese residence, so that’s on them for being an unresponsive bottleneck.
Someone I know has Maltese citizenship. From the stories they've told, the unresponsive party might not be Apple.
(At one point, my friend had to show up at the Maltese immigration office in person to get them to respond to an inquiry.)
AFAIK Apple doesn't actually check with the governments, they just look at the PDFs you send them.
The proof of residence that he said he sent Apple was his Maltese residence permit, so unless Apple verifies provided documents with the issuing authorities (honestly doubtful), the bottleneck is within Apple and/or anyone to whom they outsource these appeals.
You're technically right, but entities find it easier to just ban everyone suspicious than to devote time and manpower to actually investigate.
No due process from corporations.
And 3, Apple asking for a photo of the ID instead of using eID so the entire process can be tap > Face ID (in your country’s eID app) > done.
Also for some reason on App Store Connect, Apple is asking for a country of birth, not citizenship so with that alone, it’s unclear to me how can they make a determination at all.
Once again, our random spawn point (of which we have no control) is interfering with what we can and can’t do in life. Oh and Apple totally not getting how people live and move in the EU.
> Once again, our random spawn point (of which we have no control) is interfering with what we can and can’t do in life.
This is how wartime works.
My understanding is that the EU sanctions themselves do care about place of birth, separately from citizenship, not just Apple’s implementation. I’ve certainly seen such a question in non-Apple implementations of these sanctions.
As for not supporting eID, yeah that isn’t great, but so many people have non-electronic EU residence permits (including me within the last few years - though I don’t have Russian origin or citizenship) that they’d have to support the non-eID flow regardless. Maybe they wanted one fewer flow to implement, or maybe they felt that eID verification didn’t meet their compliance needs. No idea there.
>And 3, Apple asking for a photo of the ID instead of using eID so the entire process can be tap > Face ID (in your country’s eID app) > done.
Because actual technology is alien to Americans. We are still signing documents as if that means securitah.
> our random spawn point
It's not random.
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> European sanctions against Russia
last time I checked if there are no sanctions against you personally you shouldn't have any troubles?
I believe sancitons lists are public so that has to be verifiable by searching for "Daniil Vinogradov". Quick search on EU sanctions tracker [0] did not yield any results. Neither did [1]. So what's up with that?
[0]: https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/
[1]: https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/
That statement cannot be taken at face value. Russian developers and Russian registered entities are freely publishing apps on App Store. EU sanctions do not prevent that.
> What is interesting is that it's Apple enforcing these sanctions, rather than AltStore.
That's quite a red flag. Apple demonstrated that despite their seemingly compliance with the EU DMA, they are still indirectly in control of ALL digital markets.
This is still an uneven playing field, and I hope the EU is not blinded by this "feature demonstration" of Apple now...
Lots of Russian apps and services registered in Malta or Cyprus, but their devs continue to live in Russia. And naive users think they’re using a European app or service. For example Adguard.
It's not the first time I've noticed you spreading this misinformation on HN, so let me respond.
Most of AdGuard's staff relocated in 2022, and I (CTO and co-founder of AdGuard) personally live in Limassol, Cyprus. We commented on that publicly, but it seems that random forum posts often regarded as more reliable sources of information.
I am totally fine with anyone not trusting AdGuard for any reason, but please keep your statements factually correct.
PS: Sorry for sticking a small promo in the comment, but this year we're organizing the annual summit (adfilteringdevsummit.com) for ad blockers' devs on our home turf in Limassol, a perfect opportunity to meet us, other ad blockers and even browsers' devs.
> "Most of AdGuard's staff relocated in 2022"
So a lot of your staff remain in Russia?
If you've still got most of your devs working in Russia, and it looks like that from your github projects, I'm not sure what part of the comment you responded to is not correct or misinformation.
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Citation needed.
The AdGuards CTO and cofounder just replied to my comment, called it misinformation, but then confirmed that a large amount of their team continues to work from Russia.
If you trust Devs working in Russia with you or your companies dns security, you’re insane.
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Indeed, I thought the whole point of alternative app stores is that it’s not Apple’s decision any more whether an app can be installed or not. This looks like another case of malicious compliance.
There is a lack of proof that the developer is linked to a sanctioned entity. Not saying it isn't, but The Verge should be at least trying to verify that IMHO (instead of taking the statement at face value); I'd even trust a "we verified it but won't publish to protect the developer".