Apple's App Store has been unlawfully hosting dozens of apps tied to U.S.-sanctioned companies, according to a new watchdog report (via The Washington Post).
The Tech Transparency Project, a non-profit advocacy group, flagged 52 apps in the App Store that had links to entities found on the Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs), a designation that prohibits U.S. companies from doing business with them.
Linked organisations included Russian financial institutions such as Gazprombank and National Standard Bank propping up Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and China's Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), which has been sanctioned for involvement in repression of Uyghur minorities. Another app was run by a company owned by an accused Lithuanian drug trafficker.
The linked entities reportedly used name variants, shell developers, or partial references to obscure their sanctions status.
Google's Play Store was also found to be hosting 18 apps for similarly sanctioned organizations. Google took down all but one of the apps after being contacted by The Post. Apple removed 35 out of 52 during or after the investigation. Apple disputed that all the flagged apps violate sanctions, but said it was enhancing its review process.
Apple previously committed to improving sanctions detection after a 2019 Treasury settlement involving a naming-variation failure.
According to The Post, the Treasury could have fined Apple more than $70 million at the time, but said it accepted a settlement of less than $1 million because Apple had self-reported, had not had a violation in the preceding five years, and promised to revamp its sanction search tools "to fully capture spelling and capitalization variations and to account for country-specific business suffixes."
Legal experts say that prior agreement increases Apple's exposure now, since the latest similar lapses suggest its promised improvements were insufficient. The findings also call into question Apple's long-standing claim that its App Store provides a "safe and trusted" environment for users.
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