Garden wall keeps getting higher
No sideloading because "security"
It's for your own good, we swear
This shit happens
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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Technology
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Reason number - oh, hell, I've lost count at this point - why anything mobile app store owners say about their service should be taken with a grain of salt.
All the sacrifices of having a heavily gated garden run by one company for access to software totally worth it for keeping us safe amiright?
VTB Bank has been heavily sanctioned by the U.S. government for years, forcing the state-owned institution to rely on shell developer accounts and disguised apps to bypass Apple’s strict ban on sanctioned entities.
The app will almost certainly be pulled soon, but it’s always surprising that existing systems in place sometimes miss detecting apps disguised like this.
"miss"
But Apple is so strict with their store how could something like this possibly happen? /s
Haha. This happens so often, people have no idea. Every Russian bank does this, they publish seemingly unrelated apps under unrelated App Store dev accounts, share the links on their socials as fast as possible before the apps get taken down, then they just repeat the process when they need to update their apps. I guess generally they don't pop up on global/US rankings but still, people use them and they get taken down all the time.
What a uniquely bizarre experience it must be to have your Banking app work like this.
Yeah, I also forgot to add that in a Russian bank, you can give the clerk your iPhone, they'll plug it in their computer and install the banking app as a dev version or something. It's fascinating.
Well, it works as usual. The way it works is they probably add a spoof UI that only shows when they detect a reviewer's IP, and when published, the app shows the regular banking app.
Why all the effort though? Can’t people use their website on mobile?
Push notifications and having an icon on the home screen is important, I guess. Most Russian banks did improve their mobile websites but generally, people still prefer apps.
If only one could install some app one wants on a phone that one owns. But those times are over now. We basically rent 1500,- phones to install shit from some walled garden. Fuck this shit, I'm out.
Prediction: Apple and Google appstores will require developers to submit their source repo to a 'private' LLM that will analyze it for bad behavior, then build, sign, and submit the binary. Microsoft won't be far behind for desktop apps.
Best of luck to us devs.
Tech idea #8545764 that sounds like it could maybe do some good if only the entire industry and those responsible for regulating them weren't malicious actors.
I've never understood where all this pressure is coming from. Do idiots blame apple and microsoft when they download and run a virus that wipes out their system? You know, instead of realizing they fucked up and learning from it?
It's not about idiots :) Corporations and governments just want more control on your life. And "protection from malware" (as well as "child safety") is just an excuse and manipulation so that human life to increasingly belong to the corporations.
Probably has a 4.7 or 4.8 star rating too. If you see an app with a 4.7 star rating it's probably inflated. If you see an app below a 4.7 rating, it's probably trash. In other words, Apples star rating doesn't mean shit.