Tuesday was a rough day at the plate for the App Store Review team, as Apple pulled another scammy app from the store. This one had been harvesting sensitive user data. Earlier in the day, the team had pulled a fake Mac app designed to look like a real crypto wallet app that had cost users as much as $9.5 million in cryptocurrency.
Apple Pulls Data Harvesting App Freecash
Apple on Tuesday yanked data harvesting app Freecash from the App Store. The app, which had quickly risen to the top of the app charts, was designed solely to harvest sensitive personal information about the user.
As reported by TechCrunch, Freecash gained its popularity on TikTok by promising users they could “make money just by scrolling TikTok.” However, users were actually swapping sensitive personal information for “rewards.”
As noted by a Malwarebytes report, the app would try to collect personal information, including info about the users’ race, religion, sex life, sexual orientation, health, and other biometrics. The reports adds that the app was basically a data broker designed to provide game developers with users who are willing to install and spend money on mobile games. Freecash promoted several games, including Monopoly Go and Disney Solitaire, among others.
TechCrunch revealed that the Freecash app had been removed from the App Store in mid 2024. Then the app’s publisher, Almedia GmbH, a few months later, rebranded an existing app from another publisher called Rewards as Freecash, which then once again rose to the top of the charts.
It is not an uncommon tactic among developers to use another developer’s account to sneak a banned app back onto the App Store. A Washington Post report discuss this, and it listed several less-than-legitimate apps that had been removed from the App Store and then were re-submitted by a different developer account.
TechCrunch says Apple remove the Freecash app after the publication contacted it about the app. Apple told TechCrunch the app was removed for violating two App Store Review Guidelines. Rules 3.1.2(a) and 2.3.1, forbid developers from scamming users, engaging in bait-and-switch tactics, or marketing their apps in a misleading way.
Developer Almedia, however, sees things a bit differently. It “denied allegations of driving artificial traffic to its platform or using deceptive marketing techniques.” It claimed that its apps “are fully compliant with the Apple App Store and Google Play Store policies, as demonstrated by the fact that they are live and regularly pass platform reviews.”
