Sirius Pomodoro
The third most popular free iPhone app in the U.S. App Store today is a mysterious productivity app that’s only available in Russian. That’s a pretty obvious red flag that something isn’t quite what it seems.
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The app icon looks similar to a star mapping app. The app itself isn’t available in English. It seems unlikely that this productivity app organically found its way to the third-place ranking for its advertised purpose.
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The reality seems to be that the app is a Russian banking app disguised as a Pomodoro timer. Activity on Telegram this week points to the app actually being a client for Russian financial institution VTB Bank.
In Russian media, the developer says there are other apps lined up to take the place of this one after it is inevitably removed.
Previously:
- Apps for YouTube℠™®•!
- The App Store Scammer Strikes Back
- Sanctioned Entities Slip Through App Store Controls
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Someone needs to start cross-posting these side by side with stories of legitimate developer rejections for trivial, incorrect, and protectionist reasons.
Someone clearly knows how to get apps approved. It's just not the people who are doing it in good faith.
@bart Why do you think it's in bad faith? Do ordinary Russian people not deserve to use banking apps? Web apps are slow, and there's no other method for these banks to distribute their apps.
> Why do you think it's in bad faith?
Lying about the purpose of an app is definitionally "bad faith". The fact that it shouldn't be possible for two private companies to debank people through their app stores is also true, but independently of this.
@Plume You are correct about the definition, of course. What I meant was this is an app made by legitimate developers for a legitimate purpose, and not to defraud its users or facilitate some illegal activity. Yes, it is camouflaged, and I’m sure the devs are not thrilled about having to deceive the reviewer to get the app on the store for a couple of days (hours?), but ultimately it’s not a harmful app.
> Do ordinary Russian people not deserve to use banking apps?
Wrong question. The question right now is do ordinary Ukrainian people deserve to live freely in their own country? Russia is sanctioned because they attacked Ukraine and temporarily not giving a damn about ordinary people's banking capabilities is part of it.
> for a legitimate purpose
Nope. Russia and its banks are under international sanctions because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, so it's not legitimate anymore.
@hmmm
> Do ordinary Russian people not deserve to use banking apps?
And who those 800k people that in Ukraine right now. Putin?
Not to mention Russia’s defense sector and everything related
Plus, the UN Chapter 7 Article 41 allows any type of sanctions and all countries singed on that.
