By: Aseem Gaurav on June 16, 2011
Following reports that application developer Daniel Amitay used information gathered from his app's users to reveal the 10 most frequently used iPhone passcodes, Apple surprisingly has decided to ban his app.
The working methodology of the controversial app was like this: the app used its own lockscreen to grab the passcodes users entered into the program. The developer then used this data and suggested in a report that many iOS users have weak passwords like 1234 and 0000.
Amitay wrote on his blog:
Big Brother has been removed from the App Store. I’m certainly not happy about it, but considering the concerns a few people have expressed regarding the transfer of data from app to my server, it is understandable.not the actual iPhone lockscreen passcodes. Second, when the app sends this data to my server, it is literally sending only that number (e.g. “1234”) and nothing else. I have no way of identifying any user or device whatsoever.
I think I should clarify exactly what data I was referring to, and how I was obtaining it. First, these passcodes are those that are input into Big Brother.
The developer believed that he can collect the passcode data since he was not collecting personally identifiable information. Amitay is now working out the issue with Apple.
Following reports that application developer Daniel Amitay used information gathered from his app's users to reveal the 10 most frequently used iPhone passcodes, Apple surprisingly has decided to ban his app.
The working methodology of the controversial app was like this: the app used its own lockscreen to grab the passcodes users entered into the program. The developer then used this data and suggested in a report that many iOS users have weak passwords like 1234 and 0000.
Amitay wrote on his blog:
Big Brother has been removed from the App Store. I’m certainly not happy about it, but considering the concerns a few people have expressed regarding the transfer of data from app to my server, it is understandable.not the actual iPhone lockscreen passcodes. Second, when the app sends this data to my server, it is literally sending only that number (e.g. “1234”) and nothing else. I have no way of identifying any user or device whatsoever.
I think I should clarify exactly what data I was referring to, and how I was obtaining it. First, these passcodes are those that are input into Big Brother.
The developer believed that he can collect the passcode data since he was not collecting personally identifiable information. Amitay is now working out the issue with Apple.
