It’s been a crazy news week and now it gets even crazier. Earlier this week, we learned that Apple banned Facebook from running their internal iOS apps because the social media giant used Apple’s enterprise certificate to distribute software outside of the App Store.
Now, Google has been found of doing the same and Apple dropped the hammer to the search giant. Per Google sources, The Verge reported that pre-release beta apps of Gmail for iOS, Google Maps, and Hangouts for iOS have stopped working. In addition, employee-only apps like Google’s internal cafe app have also stopped working.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Previously, TechCrunch reported that Facebook had been using Apple’s enterprise certificate to distribute ‘Facebook Research,’ which is a VPN app that allows the company root access to a participant’s phone. Similarly, Google was doing this with its own app called Screenwise Meter.
In a statement released yesterday, Google admitted that it committed the mistake, and said: “The Screenwise Meter iOS app should have not operated under Apple’s developer enterprise program — this was a mistake, and we apologize. We have disabled this app on iOS devices. This app is completely voluntary and always has been. We’ve been upfront with users about the way we use their data in this app, we have no access to encrypted data in apps and on devices, and users can opt out of program at any time.”
Facebook and Google having their internal iOS apps disabled is pretty serious, to say the least. Both companies have stopped development on their respective iOS apps until the can fix this problem and mend their relationship with Apple.
