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Apple has reversed the course of its OurPact parental control ban application, allowing the ousted software to return to the App Store in its original form and without any limitations or restrictions. This decision marks the end of a conflict that has lasted several months between Apple and various parental control companies affected by the restrictions imposed by Apple.
The fact that Apple has removed or prevented updates from many of these applications (including OurPact) has raised serious concerns, believing that it was the result of a sudden change in policy that was reclassifying applications as dangerous, because of the technology on which they were based for the management of children's devices. The problem was that these applications were using a suite of tools called MDM, or multi-device management, designed for hardware management in computing and school environments. It was still allowed on the App Store in various business applications after Apple's rule change, despite the use of the same technology and the fact that users were apparently running the same risk.
Things went wrong just before Apple's annual WWDC developer meeting, following The New York Times which brought to light the developers of the parental control application concerned. The report said Apple's bans seemed to coincide with its own implementation of the Screen Time parental control tool built into iOS 12, suggesting that Apple's motivations implied self-interest.
In response, Apple made the unusual decision to publish a letter from Phil Schiller, its long-time global marketing manager, explaining that the applications "endangered the privacy and security of users" and should therefore be removed. A group of parental control application developers (including OurPact) then came together to demand an Apple API so that their apps would work in the new iOS limits, if they had to be permanently barred from using existing MDM tools.
In another order of ideas, Apple has updated its guidelines on App Store reviews during WWDC to allow the use of parental control applications using MDM (and VPN tools), apparently in response to the controversy. And now, with OurPact – the most publicly touched application – officially in the store, it seems like all the business is finally over.
Nevertheless, even with this controversy finally settled, it is a good reminder of the almost total power exerted by Apple on the App Store and authorized or prohibited applications. Although this incident seems to be resolved, given the nature of the control fisted, it is likely that this is not the last time this kind of controversy arises.
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