{"id":15458,"date":"2019-05-31T08:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T16:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/news-9207\/"},"modified":"2019-05-31T08:30:05","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T16:30:05","slug":"news-9207","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/news-9207\/","title":{"rendered":"Who watches the iOS parental control apps?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 31 May 2019 07:36:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children are emotional. Protecting them matters. When it comes to technology, do you want developers you don\u2019t know over whom you have no control watching what your children do on their devices?<\/p>\n

Apple recently cut developers off<\/a> from using MDM software to drive third-party parental control solutions.<\/p>\n

Developers were upset, and seventeen smaller developers you\u2019ve probably never heard of got together just days before Apple\u2019s WWDC 2019 conference with a well-organized PR campaign and a professional website<\/a> to demand access to new API\u2019s that let them develop parental control software for iOS.<\/p>\n

One of these developers, Kidslox, previously filed an EU complaint<\/a> against Apple\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

The issue is that in order to make these controls work developers had been making use of Apple\u2019s Mobile Device Management (MDM) remote access tools.<\/p>\n

The problem with that is that those tools \u2013 designed to help enterprise users manage fleets of devices \u2013 gave app developers power to tamper with apps and access user information, and Apple didn’t think it was appropriate, it claims.<\/p>\n

The argument is that not only does no rational parent want unregulated and unaccountable third-party entities accessing data about their kids, but lack of regulation means there\u2019s little control over what happens to that data once it is collected.<\/p>\n

This is why Apple withdrew those parental control apps from its App Store.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recently removed several parental-control apps from the App Store, and we did it for a simple reason: They put users\u2019 privacy and security at risk. It\u2019s important to understand why and how this happened,\u201d Apple wrote<\/a>, explaining the move.<\/p>\n

Now the developers are campaigning for Apple to create a set of parental control APIs they can use in their apps.<\/p>\n

\u201cApple should release a public API granting developers access to the same functionalities that Apple\u2019s native \u201cScreen Time\u201d uses,\u201d they claim.<\/p>\n

While the developers make what seems on the face of it a good case, I do feel their case would be boosted if as well as making a proposal around an API, they could also commit to minimum privacy standards and make public account of:<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have enough time to investigate every company involved in the campaign, but one quick Google search one one of the 17 firms revealed claims (which I’ve not corroborated though the source seems solid) that 281GB of images and videos of children that company monitored were leaked online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I guess there is a benign explanation for the company\u2019s need to store all those images and videos of other people’s children, but if I were a well-resourced journalist at any of the major news outlets who are reporting the current campaign, I\u2019d have to ask why that data was retained.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the only time in which third-party parental control apps seem to have demonstrated shaky security<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To be fair, I’m not saying and I do not know if all such software developers gather data \u00a0of this kind, but it certainly seems reasonable to insist that companies who have access to data about your children are utterly transparent about how they protect that data and what they do with it.<\/p>\n

And the best way to secure such information is not to let others have it in the first place.<\/p>\n

I always try to support developers, but my tiny investigation makes me hesitate to jump enthusiastically aboard the latest \u201cApple is bad<\/em>\u201d meme.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting the current campaign to cast Apple as being anti-competitive comes at a bad time.<\/p>\n

The company’s record on privacy has come under fairly consistent attack since it dared to point out<\/a> its platform is inherently far more secure than the dominant mobile OS.<\/p>\n

The current campaign may turn out to be a little counterproductive in terms of furthering the ongoing \u2018Apple is bad\u2019 narrative. After all, if a two-minute web search exposes instances in which the security of such software has been compromised, this rather supports Apple\u2019s inherent argument of needing to switch off access to MDM software in order to protect its customers.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have time to investigate every company. I\u2019m not saying they are all subject to such problems, nor that it is likely they are. I’d even concede that the campaign does signify a need for APIs developers can use in order to deliver more personalised iOS parental protection features than Apple makes available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are as many usage cases as there are parents and children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, I\u2019d urge anyone using parental control software on any platform to read the developer\u2019s privacy and security policies thoroughly.<\/p>\n

It’s also important to ensure developers can be held to account in the event they let down your trust, and that you as a parent have complete access to any data held about your children by those developers.<\/p>\n

In the event you do not have such control, I’d recommend not using the solution.<\/p>\n

This, surely, is common sense?<\/p>\n

Please follow me on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, or join me in the\u00a0AppleHolic\u2019s bar & grill<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Apple Discussions<\/a>\u00a0groups on MeWe.<\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/category\/security\/index.rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 31 May 2019 07:36:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Children are emotional. Protecting them matters. When it comes to technology, do you want developers you don\u2019t know over whom you have no control watching what your children do on their devices?<\/p>\n

Apple doesn’t<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Apple recently cut developers off<\/a> from using MDM software to drive third-party parental control solutions.<\/p>\n

Developers were upset, and seventeen smaller developers you\u2019ve probably never heard of got together just days before Apple\u2019s WWDC 2019 conference with a well-organized PR campaign and a professional website<\/a> to demand access to new API\u2019s that let them develop parental control software for iOS.<\/p>\n

To read this article in full, please click here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[11062,10643],"tags":[2211,10480,10554,714],"class_list":["post-15458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computerworld","category-independent","tag-apple","tag-ios","tag-mobile","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}