
Apple Rejects Academic App That Detects Net Neutrality Violations - tonyztan
https://twitter.com/proffnes/status/953424625651912704
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natch
1) Apple rejected an app that sounds like it does a good thing.

2) Developer has made up an interpretation to explain Apple’s supposed real,
unstated, reasons for rejection, substituting it for the reasons Apple itself
explained.

3) Since the app had a good reason for existing, developer’s made up theory
must be the only possible correct interpretation.

4) QED

Anyone else see a flaw in this logic?

I agree that from the few and highly spun facts we have been given, it seems
like Apple could do a better job here communicating back and forth and
clarifying the potential issues. But to attribute the rejection to the
presence of the words “net neutrality” seems a bit whacky.

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craftyguy
Well, apple did supposedly say it was 'not appropriate.' So what do you think
apple would consider to be 'not appropriate'? I'd guess things like extreme
violence, nudity, promotion of racism.

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jjeaff
From the scant details provided, it looks to me that tgis could be out of
context: "iOS operating system doesn't provide access to specific private APIs
or other hardware that may affect the results."

My guess is he is trying to access non public apis.

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snowwrestler
There are many reasons that network speed can vary from request to request on
a mobile device, right? Detecting some differences, applying statistical tests
and then definitively calling it a "net neutrality violation" does not seem to
me to be particularly reliable.

So if Apple's point of view is something like "making this available to
unsophisticated users will create a lot of drama, much of it probably
unjustified," then I have to admit I'm sympathetic.

Net neutrality is a emotionally charged issue right now, and I'd suggest that
proponents are best served by being _very confident_ that the abuses they
report are actually abuses.

On top of that, wireless networks were are least partially exempted from the
Title II rule anyway, so even if it were still in force, iPhone carriers would
still not be subject to all its rules.

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votepaunchy
> Recall that shaping is implemented by looking at the contents of your
> network traffic to see if it belongs to a given application. We can exploit
> this observation to “turn off” shaping as follows: we simply send the same
> traffic, but replace the original contents with random strings.

Is this accurate? My understanding was that T-Mobile and others throttle based
on the source network since most streams are encrypted, preventing content
analysis (which would also require significantly higher processing).

~~~
wmf
Yeah, there are a bunch of different kinds of net neutrality violations and
this app only tries to detect some of them. DPI seems increasingly pointless
from the ISP's perspective now that everything is encrypted, so detecting DPI
is fighting the last war.

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wand3r
Apple has come to the forefront as defenders of users privacy, net neutrality
and generally having a fairly laissez faire attitude towards the app store (at
least as far as games, IAPs, and questionable apps) so this is going to raise
questions. If they seem to block more researchers apps this, for me, will
requirs sufficient explanation. With the few facts already public I am already
pretty disappointed in their handling of this

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kgdinesh
Does anyone have the link to the research paper behind this app?

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tonyztan
I believe it is this one: [https://david.choffnes.com/pubs/imc095-molavi-
kakhkiA.pdf](https://david.choffnes.com/pubs/imc095-molavi-kakhkiA.pdf)

~~~
kgdinesh
Thanks!

