AppleInsider Says Apple Sent It ‘Essentially the Same Email … 29 Times’ About App Store Scams in Ten Years ⇥ appleinsider.com

William Gallagher and Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider:

After we reported less than four days ago about the fraudulent apps, Apple got back to us. They repeated the same talking points that they always do when an app gets pulled after it steals money from users, or some other nefarious deed.

And, as always, it’s information surrounding the issues that we are not allowed to quote, and not allowed to say who said it to us.

We have always adhered to those terms, even when others have not, or others were allowed to quote and gave a named Apple PR source. We did do an email search on the verbatim quotes we got in the last few days, looking for repetition over the last 10 years at AppleInsider on what they said to us.

Essentially the same email was sent to us 29 times over the last decade. The emails used verbatim quotes 17 times over that timespan.

Whether App Store scams are “getting far, far worse and more prevalent”, as Gallagher and Wuerthele claim without evidence, is immaterial to whether apps like Freecash and a fraudulent version of Ledger Live should have gotten past what Apple claims are a “thorough review” of “the highest standards for privacy, security, and content”. These specific apps needed to be caught; Freecash was caught by Wired months before Apple decided to remove it.

Gallagher and Wuerthele make some good arguments in this piece. Yet it also comes across as an admission that AppleInsider has done its part in its professional relationship with Apple. Its writers ran anonymous quotes, paraphrased key information delivered on background, and favouring Apple’s view or delivering it uncritically. I am not saying AppleInsider is shilling for Apple, but I do think, as an Apple-specific news site, there is a mutually beneficial relationship it recognizes to some extent. They get comments from the company’s selective communications staff and previews of embargoed reports. Perhaps this is a coincidental stance. I am glad it is recognizing it has been receiving the same carefully worded statement for years, at least.