In a new press release, Apple highlights some of the ways it says it uses to protect developers and users, claiming it prevented more than $1.5 billion in fraudulent App Store transactions in 2020.
The tech giant from Cupertino saysthat a combination of technology and human expertise has protected customers' money, information, and time. Its anti-fraud platforms also kept nearly a million risky or vulnerable apps out of the App Store. Along with the announcement, Apple highlighted some of the methods it uses to combat fraud in the online app marketplace. These include its app review process, tools to combat fraudulent ratings and reviews, and monitoring developer accounts for abuse. For example, Apple says it helped 180,000 developers release new apps in 2020. During the same period, it stopped nearly a million problematic new apps and another million app updates.
Apple: Fraudulent reviews were also removed
Of those rejections, Apple says more than 48,000 were blocked due to hidden or undocumented features. About 150,000 were rejected for being misleading, spammy, or knockoffs. The company explains that in the last month alone, it has taken action against apps that switched functionality after initial acceptance. Apps that were removed or rejected included predatory loan brokers, pornography hubs, and gambling apps. Apple also says it removed 215,000 apps for privacy violations, including asking for more information than necessary to operate or mishandling the data it collected. As for fraudulent ratings and reviews, Apple explains that it has removed more than 250 million ratings and reviews for not complying with content moderation policies.
App Store Security: Apple works around the clock
When it comes to account abuse or fraud, the company says it terminated 470,000 developer accounts and rejected another 205,000 applications due to fraud concerns in 2020. Cupertino blocked 110,000 illegal apps on pirate storefronts and rejected 3.2 million instances of apps distributed via side-loading. Account fraud monitoring extended to users as well. Apple deactivated 244 million customer accounts due to abuse or fraud. Additionally, another 424 million account creations were blocked "because they exhibited patterns consistent with fraudulent and abusive activity." As for combating financial fraud, Apple says it blocked more than 3 million stolen credit cards from being used to purchase goods and services. It also blocked about 1 million accounts from further transactions.
From app review to detecting fraudulent accounts to preventing financial crime, Apple works around the clock and behind the scenes to make the App Store a safe and trusted place for users and developers.
Apple's anti-fraud highlight comes amid the investigation into the company's app store practices in the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit, which is actively underway. Documents and testimony during the trial have already shed light on the app review process. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
