The timing, really couldn’t be more perfect. Just as no less than Apple VP Phil Schiller has started making comments on the record about App Store rejections, Apple yanks another very popular one from its store. Sex Offender, an app to locate sexual predators in your area, had been consistently in the top 10 paid apps for weeks. And now it’s gone — not just off of the list, but off of the store.
We haven’t been able to get in touch directly with the developers of the app yet, but we’re told that they’re looking into the possibility of filing a suit (presumably against Apple) for the removal. So clearly they feel this removal is unjust. But at we wrote when we covered the app a couple weeks ago, this may have to do with the fact that they were charging for this app. As a couple commenters noted in our last story, “This app is not legal, at least under CA law. Selling the personal information of people (even ex-criminals) for profit is forbidden.”
Again, it’s hard to know for sure if that’s the reason why the app was pulled, but it stands to reason that it could have something to do with it. But the bigger picture is that this once again shows a major problem in the App Store (surprise). Why was this app accepted in the first place if it was going to be rejected just a few weeks later? The app is all about tracking sexual offenders, if that doesn’t scream “screen me closely,” I don’t know what does. Yet, it would seem that the app reviewers at Apple didn’t check quite closely enough, again.
There are no shortage of these types of stories: Apps getting approved and then yanked, but usually it happens relatively quickly, and doesn’t involve a hugely popular app. That is not the case here, which makes this interesting. I still have the app on my iPhone and it is still working. We’ll update if we hear more.
Somebody needs to put together an underground app store for rejected apps.
Even if one needed to jailbreak their phone to use such a service, it may have a niche.
Uhhh….
many rejected apps like GV mobile find their new home at Cydia.
Holy crap for crap!
yeah… Cydia has been out since iPhone 2.0… a lot of rejected apps end up there.. or unsupported… THEY’RE SUPPORTED NOW! lol
Once you download the app, you have it forever. You can then put it on your computer and transfer it to another iPhone.
Someone could set up a network of rejected applications by setting up a download site to transfer the applications to other users. Though, something would have to be done about the DRM.
already been done. the drm was broken a long time ago and you can find and download cracked apps from various resources. you need a jailbroken iphone to do it though. most banned apps end up on cydia anyway though.
Is it hard to jail break a phone? What is the downside of doing this?
well the big downside is that you just voided your warranty. so if the phone goes south, you are stuck.
this is why some folks that decide in the end to jail break do it with an older phone that is out of warranty anyway. so no matter what they have to just buy a new one
I’ve suffered myself from the Apple “reasonable judgement”… It’s a quite an tragic hilarious story…
http://www.cubi...pen_Letter.html
Cya
what about credit & background checks – they make a profit off our information (criminal or not)
good point
they still offer the free version of offender locator.
but this information is publicly available, right? are there copyrights on public government data? plus, if this app were free, would they reject it?
that’s the big question. it would seem the paying part may be the sticking point. hard to know for sure though right now.
I fail to understand why, in proposing a rationale for why this app might have been pulled, you relied on legal advice from a TechCrunch commenter on your previous story, but somehow didn’t even attempt to verify that proprosition with a lawyer. Or, failing that, the CA Dept of Justice, who helpfully puts their phone number on the web (http://www.mega...px?lang=ENGLISH). Isn’t this what journalists do?
This same information appears legally on lots of websites that show ads and sell services. Why couldn’t it legally appear in an iPhone app?
As you say, “that’s the big question.” Well, to give you a head start on your research, I’m appending the same information I put in my comment on your previous story.
————-
The commenter who claims “selling” this information is illegal under CA law isn’t quite right.
The disclosure terms on the California Megan’s Law website–where such a disclaimer would be prominently highlighted–list no such not-for-profit requirement.
The valid uses for this information are to “protect a person at risk,” which this application could clearly claim to do.
The limitations on how this information can be used are here:
- http://www.mega...lang=ENGLISH#1a
- from the statute here:
http://law.onec...enal/290.4.html
Yes its public info. That’s the point. He’s taking public personal information and selling it. =illegal
That would be the same as me taking all my friends phone numbers on facebook and selling them to spammers.
You are obviously not a lawyer. There’s no law against reselling public information.
He could legally be selling is program for $1. The program, however, provides free publically assimilated information. That’s how I would fight it in court at least.
Yay, misinformation.
Might want to tell all the people who sell access to court records, sex offender searches, etc.
Idiot.
i just hacked into the App-store approval system. here ’s what i found (pseudocode):
flipCoin()
if (heads)
approve app
else
reject app
wait 1 week
if (pressCoverage >= lotsOf)
rejectMoreApps
else if (pressCoverage >= tooMuch)
fireBoardMember
else
rejectAppAnyway
what language is that?
Haha, awesome code is awesome.
i m amazed nobody noticed the obvious flaw in the code.
apple is lame
ha
LOL!! Love it..
brilliant!
Can the developer not say they are charging for the software, and acknowledge that the data are free and publicly available? I’m sure the data source does not have a map view. Devs should be able to add value to free sources.
Exactly.
My thoughts, too.
The sad thing is we’ll probably won’t hear a response from Apple about their approval process at least until after the FCC inquiries are done.
If the app were free there wouldn’t be a problem
Damn those ignorant and greedy bastards at Apple. Say, I know, here’s an idea – shut up and quit buying Apple stuff. Wait, what’s that? They don’t really suck -that- bad? Or not as bad as Android or the Pre?
Ahhh. I see. The classic ‘THE MAN’S OUT TO GET US!!!!’ syndrome.
Seriously, if Apple is so horrible, why give them the time of day? Toss your iPhone and waste your energy on the Android.
Give it time! I am not biting off my nose to spite my face, but I guarantee you that Apple will want the upset developers back after the dust settles on a decent Android release. Give it 2 years…
I think this removal was by the request of the authorities.
Remember, in 2006, a guy murdered two sex offenders at their home, and he got the records from the Maine’s sex offender registry online.
http://en.wikip...ephen_Marshall_(murderer)
I think the iPhone app makes it easier for ordinary citizen to take the law into their own hands. This is something authorities are afraid of the entire time.
Agreed, A buddy of mine was 18, had a 17 year old girlfriend. When they broke up, her parents, out of spite, took action and now he will forever be on that list. I understand that is an isolated case that doesnt represent a whole… but his face popping up everytime someone does a search, or opens that app is humiliating… that being said, I think the app should have stayed.
And yes, I need better friends.
How? The data is already easily available for free.
Public data cannot be copyrighted. I do not know if some can charge for the data or not.
http://www.copy...circs/circ1.pdf
They are not charging for the data as an intellectual property. They are charging for their work in compiling the data, i.e., compiling, recompiling, re-recompiling data into useful information.
I am on that list for sexually molesting a fish– a Tilapia to be exact. My story is that the fish was almost dead, and I was only trying to scale it when my finger accidentally… Yet, I ended up pleading no contest to forceable entry. Now I can’t get a job because my name (though not the fish’s name) pops up every time someone does a search for sex offenders. Uh… how humiliating.
http://constitu...on-i-phone.html
Appmodo.com : Apple pulls popular Sex Offender app from store
Apple has pulled another popular app from its App Store. The app that had consistently held its own on the top 10 paid apps for weeks, is now completely gone. “This app is not legal, at least under CA law. Selling the personal information of people (even ex-criminals) for profit is forbidden.”
So why was this app get accepted in the first place?
The App was accepted because Apple does not verify that you have the legal right to obtain and display the information–that is your responsibility.
There is a legal issue here. On the one hand, it is government information and we should be able to access it. However, there’s also a law that you can’t sell it–which the developers were doing.
Since there is a question as to whether the developer has the legal right to publish this information for profit, Apple pulled the application. Unfortunately, the question will have to be resolved by the courts.
i’m not surprised. i don’t know how it got approved in the first place.
Their free version is still downloadable, so the issue definitely is about selling the info for cash. Unless there is a rule that says you cannot publish more than 10 offenders’ names at one time.
They aren’t selling the criminal information, they are selling an app that provides convenient access to it. This is no different than selling an RSS reader that reads the free feeds.
If the issue is about selling the information, then why hasn’t Apple removed, a nearly identical, but less popular paid app called “Sex Offenders Search?”
Seems like those developers would be in violation too, if it really is illegal to sell that information in California.
http://tr.im/vTT3
Etan
Well pulling it certainly helps their case with the FCC. “See, we didn’t just pick on Google”
I’m glad Apple pulled that app. Even if not for the morality-backed reasons that I hope they had.
Draconian American sex-offender laws need to be taken on by politicians with a spine. The lives that are being ruined for minor and forgivable offenses need not be further tainted by an app which makes it ridiculously easy to segregate certain people.
Read this Economist article: http://bit.ly/3jp2Tf
Or look up ‘Miami sex offenders’ in the NYT for a taste of just how inhumane the situation is becoming for these people who are supposedly ready to be accepted into mainstream society.
Update: the app is back up with a disclaimer regarding CA sex offenders: http://bit.ly/2AHQU