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Amazon got Fakespot, a popular service on the web that works for identify fake reviews on the e-commerce platform, launched the Apple App Store. The incident pitted two of the tech industry’s biggest giants against a small company, and Fakespot is crying foul.
As reported by the edge Friday, the problem started with a new update to the Fakespot app which Amazon says could be exploited to steal customer data. Amazon contacted Apple on June 8 and asked them to remove the app. Apple has asked Amazon and Fakespot to try to resolve the issue themselves. It apparently didn’t work, and on Friday Apple removed Fakespot from the App Store, an action that Fakespot says is Apple. side with Amazon without any proof.
Apple and Fakespot founder and CEO Saoud Khalifah confirmed to Gizmodo that this was an Amazon-initiated dispute.
“This was an intellectual property rights dispute initiated by Amazon on June 8 and within hours we made sure the two sides were in contact with each other, explaining the issue and the steps for the developer to take to keep their app on the store and give them ample time to fix the issue, ”Apple told Gizmodo on Saturday.“ On June 29, we contacted Fakespot again weeks before removing its app from the App Store. “
Gizmodo reached out to Amazon on several occasions on Friday and Saturday to seek comment on this issue, but we did not receive a response at the time of posting. We’ll make sure to update this blog if we do.
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According to The Verge, Amazon had various grievances against Fakespot. As for the Apple App Store, Amazon believed Fakespot, which also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, as well as an app for Android.violates policy 5.2.2 on third party sites and services. The directive reads as follows on Apple website:
“If your app uses, accesses, monetizes access to or displays content from a third-party service, make sure that you are specifically authorized to do so under the terms of service for the service. Authorization must be provided upon request.
Amazon also told the point of sale that Fakespot “injects” code into its website, which opens it up to attacks and endangers customer data, including emails, addresses, card information. credit and browser history. However, Amazon admitted that it was unsure whether Fakespot was using this information.
“The app in question provides customers with misleading information about our sellers and their products, harms our sellers’ activities and creates potential security risks,” Amazon said in a statement to The Verge. “We appreciate Apple’s review of this app against its App Store guidelines.”
Moreover, Amazon alleges that Fakespot does not even work everything well, stating that the companyRatings from unreliable product reviews were wrong more than 80% of the time. Amazon said it in turn has accurate information to determine whether a review is real or false. In June, Amazon said that bogus reviews were a problem, but argued that he was devoting significant resources to addressing it. The company said it has arrested more than 200 million fake reviews suspected in 2020 before they are seen by a customer.
On the other side of the conflict is Khalifah, founder and CEO of Fakespot, who argues that Amazon is wrong and that many of its claims are baseless. Khalifah spoke to Gizmodo on the phone on Friday and called Amazon’s claim it could steal users’ personal information as “absolute rubbish,” adding that the company does not monetize by selling user data and would. never.
He also said he did not believe Fakespot violated the App Store guideline which Amazon claims to have violated.
“We have every right to be able to specify our independent opinion on reviews and on sellers, and we are here to bring the best reliable information to our consumers,” Khalifah said. “That’s the whole principle behind Fakespot and the mission that we have as a company. Any kind of twist on it, that we break the rules and things like that, [is false and] open to interpretation. In this case, Amazon’s interpretation may be that we are violating this, but they have not provided any evidence that we are doing so. “
Khalifah also denies Amazon’s claim that “injecting” code is a security risk. He argued that Fakespot makes Amazon’s website in his app, which is the same thing he did in his previous app which was on the App Store for many years. In response to Amazon’s claim that Fakespot is wrong more than 80% of the time, Khalifah said the company provided that figure. “From nowhere.”
Fakespot started as Khalifah’s personal side project in college after getting ripped off in 2014. Since, over 25 million users have used Fakespot. The app had over 150,000 users, without any marketing effort, on iOS before it was retired, he said.
“If Amazon was doing its job, there wouldn’t be any need for my business [or] someone else’s business providing an analysis of those reviews, ”Khalifah said. “And people would have no doubts that the reviews they read on Amazon are real. But unfortunately there is doubt and there is a spread of disinformation on this platform and there is a massive amount of fake reviews. “
He’s not wrong, there are fake reviews on Amazon. Last In September, Amazon deleted around 20,000 reviews from seven of its top 10 UK reviews after the Financial Time found that they made a profit by giving products five stars.
Khalifah said the withdrawal will significantly affect Fakespot as he has devoted a lot of time and resources to it. The company will explore all of its options to bring its app back to the App Store and, in the meantime, will continue to work on its apps on other platforms and browser extensions.
As of now, Khalifah said he has not received any news that Amazon has filed its complaints with Google, where Fakespot’s Chrome browser extension and Android app live.. It is probably more than likely to happen, he said.
“I have spent six years of my life building Fakespot, the last six years. It’s super disappointing to see this kind of result, ”said Khalifah. “I just feel like, you know, that’s not the way it should be. And we shouldn’t have these realms, so to speak, deciding who should be and who should be out of theirs. platforms. “
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