Sequential deleting apps from the App Store Russian banks that fell under sanctions and the hunt for their clones made it clear to everyone that Apple will continue this fight even further. Therefore, the same Sberbank, instead of trying to repeat the adventure with SBOL again, began to install a mobile client to access the personal account from the iPhone in its branches. Many liked this idea, because now there is no need to download an application with an incomprehensible name at the risk of your savings, hoping that you will not be heated. But then, many began to wonder, and can apple remove app from iphone any person, if he deems it necessary?
Force uninstall apps
Apple itself does not say anywhere that it has the ability remove any app from your iPhone. However, purely technically, as I believe, the company still has or at least had the necessary tools for this. In the early days of the App Store, when it just started, Apple created a special service that was supposed to keep lists of malicious applications. Now he no longer works. But then it had the following URL: https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps.
This service did not exist on its own, but worked in conjunction with the corresponding tool built into each iPhone, which was supposed to check the software installed on the smartphone with the same list and turn them off if matches were found. True, no cases of forced deletion have been reliably reported since then, and the URL itself has not been working for a long time. So it is possible that Apple has revised its policy and is no longer doing this.
But let’s think about what reasons Apple has at all. delete apps from our iPhones? The most logical case is a refund for a paid application. After all, you can’t leave a paid program to a person, the money for which he preferred to return. In fact, this is indeed the case. But the Internet knows no stories when this would happen. Even if you receive a refund for a mistakenly purchased app, it will remain on your device until you remove it yourself.
Get a refund for an app from the App Store
This is confirmed by information from the Apple support forum:
Although this message was not written by an employee of the company, its author – a user with the nickname King_Pinguin – is a local guru. They are engaged in the fact that they answer questions from other users and receive points for this. The more points a particular guru has, the higher his authority. In addition, their messages are marked with special asterisks, so there is no reason to doubt the truth of his words.
Moreover, Apple does not need delete applicationfor which a refund was sent, because it will work with restrictions anyway:
- Such an application cannot be reinstalled;
- It cannot be installed on other devices linked to the same Apple ID;
- It will not receive any updates that will be released in the App Store.
The same goes for movies purchased from iTunes. A few years ago, a scandal erupted on the Internet, which was arranged by one user who reported that Apple had removed several paid films from his computer. As it turned out later, the company did not delete anything, but simply blocked access to those positions, because the user himself changed the region of his stay in the settings.
Why did the movies disappear?
This is a normal practice, because certain studios may refuse to distribute films for which they own the rights in certain countries. This is exactly what happened to us when Harry Potter films disappeared in Russia. But deleting physical copies of movies is no longer possible. Back then, Apple even released a statement stating that it could not delete a movie if it was already downloaded to the device.
However, in 2015, Ilya Varlamov published a blog post in which he said that Apple removed he has a movie for which he requested a refund. Allegedly, he was going to do it himself, but did not have time, and therefore the technical support employees themselves took the liberty of removing the film in order to avoid misuse. How true this story is, I do not presume to judge.
Perhaps Ilya simply chose the wrong wording, and it was about blocking access to downloading a digital copy. But, if you “work on commas” and read Varlamov’s text literally, then it turns out that it was the actual deletion of the physical copy already loaded into the device’s memory that took place.
Will Sberbank Online be deleted
And yet, what is the answer to the question posed in the title? I sincerely believe that nothing is impossible for Apple and it can delete apps from our iPhonesif he wants to. But most likely, in Cupertino they forbid themselves to do this, respecting the right of users to privacy. Not because holy people work in the company, but because this is a colossal reputational blow. Just imagine that somewhere information will pop up that Apple got into the iPhone a specific person and removed something from there. Yes, it’s a scandal. Remember how everyone was indignant when Cupertino wanted to build a tool to check user photos for child abuse in iOS?
After all, if Apple can remove an application, then it can remove everything else. Photos, contacts, records, correspondence – but you never know what. The very fact that the company has such an opportunity is already a collapse for its reputation. This would mean that The iPhone is fundamentally unsafe, and Apple deceived everyone, assuring the opposite. It is highly likely that many millions of users would have abandoned smartphones and all other devices of the apple brand, and it would have been very hard for him. So I would answer the question in the title like this: yes, Apple can remove apps from our iPhones, but it never will. Therefore your Sberbank Online won’t go anywhere. Sleep well.
