I've been consistently saying this online - "app stores" and "developer programs" are all about control (and exploitation) and we developers need to consistently boycott it. There is a real need for us developers to form a Union and lobby for regulations to prevent such kind of abuse and exploitation by the BigTech. If we don't act now, it is going to be too late to do so. The onslaught against our rights and freedoms, by BigTech, is the beginning of a new form "digital imperialism" where we are only seen as "labour" and "consumer".
Apple’s terms explicitly prohibit using automated tools to scrape or analyze App Store data, even if it’s done outside an app. When they flag something like that, they usually don’t explain the reason — partly because they don’t want to expose how they evaluate developer activity or link accounts to external projects.
Not saying it’s definitely the cause, but it’s one plausible explanation the author was denied.
> When they flag something like that, they usually don’t explain the reason — partly because they don’t want to expose how they evaluate developer activity or link accounts to external projects.
Well, this is unacceptable considering the market power Apple has. It's basically an occupational ban for mobile app development. Imagine, if GitHub won't let you join (maybe) because you criticized Microsoft on Twitter 10 years ago, or (maybe) it's because they don't like the way you dress.
"What's your greatest weakness?"
"Well, I can't develop your app for half the market, because Apple unexpectedly challenged me with a self-improvement journey. But I am well on my way, really introspecting to find out where I failed in life, where I may have misspoken. I am confident I can soon regain Apple's trust and approval for my life decision, and become a full-market developer!"
It’s not that uncommon for a 3rd party to report a developer for violating Apple ToS. Frequently, it’s out of spite towards the offending party and not out of love for Apple. Also, Apple employees sometimes report stuff they stumble upon too. Bottom line is the fact you have a public GitHub project for over a decade that scrapes the AppStore and violates their terms and you were denied a developer account makes sense to me. Maybe you should consider your actions before publicly complaining of being wronged.
While android also has this problem (requiring a Developer account), it is not that bad, because you can still publish apps outside of the app store.
Sadly Google is hard at work to remove this functionality.
As someone learning Japanese, that seems very much like an app I would want and love. I hope you are able to sort this out soon so I can buy it!
Also Igor, if you are reading this, your GitHub and LinkedIn icons in your sites header link to GitHub and LinkedIn's homepages rather than your profiles. Probably want to fix that ;)
You may be right. His name sounds Russian or Slavic. Even then, another country's law shouldn't trump your own country's law. If he is on a blacklist of some country, ban him only there.
If you look at the about page, there are telltale signs that he is from Slovakia, which is an EU country, just like a bunch of other Slavic countries, such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria.
>Even then, another country's law shouldn't trump your own country's law. If he is on a blacklist of some country, ban him only there.
But Apple is an American company? If he's sanctioned for being a Putin affiliate or whatever, Apple has to abide those sanctions, even if he's not sanctioned in whatever country he lives in.
> If he's sanctioned for being a Putin affiliate or whatever
Unless you have specific incriminating evidence, please don't present this hypothetical nonsense as if it's a real possibility. Here's more information about the author: https://blog.kulman.sk/about/
What a shame that comments keep mentioning Russia just because the author's name is not "John Smith" or something.
I bought a new SIM to have a new phone number, create a new email, registered a new Apple ID from a clean VM and different IP, got to the step where I have to pay for the dev account and all of the cards I used got me an error. Banks saying Apple did not even try charging them.
Couldn't that potentially cause problems for the person whose name you're using? I imagine it would likely violate Apple's terms of service and that person might risk losing access to whatever Apple services they rely on.
I got the same thing trying to sign up for Oracle Cloud.
Thankfully Oracle aren't the only cloud platform, of course. Which makes it even more fun telling my friends and colleagues how shit Oracle Cloud are whenever the topic of cloud providers comes up even funnier.
On the other hand, Apple's position of dominance here makes their refusal to answer a GDPR subject access request all the more galling.
I've been consistently saying this online - "app stores" and "developer programs" are all about control (and exploitation) and we developers need to consistently boycott it. There is a real need for us developers to form a Union and lobby for regulations to prevent such kind of abuse and exploitation by the BigTech. If we don't act now, it is going to be too late to do so. The onslaught against our rights and freedoms, by BigTech, is the beginning of a new form "digital imperialism" where we are only seen as "labour" and "consumer".
Very true, and it's done under the guise of safety, when it's actually just a war on general computing.
developers of the world, unite !
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Register a company/business.
Get a business phone number, mailing address, and credit card.
You're going to have to publish your name, address, phone number, etc when you have an app published on the app store
If you want to get around the individual privacy issue of this, you'll need a business anyway.
>If you want to get around the individual privacy issue of this, you'll need a business anyway.
Unless the country in which the business is registered makes corporate registrations (and officers) public.
It might be related to this repo: https://github.com/igorkulman/AppStoreCrawler
Apple’s terms explicitly prohibit using automated tools to scrape or analyze App Store data, even if it’s done outside an app. When they flag something like that, they usually don’t explain the reason — partly because they don’t want to expose how they evaluate developer activity or link accounts to external projects.
Not saying it’s definitely the cause, but it’s one plausible explanation the author was denied.
> When they flag something like that, they usually don’t explain the reason — partly because they don’t want to expose how they evaluate developer activity or link accounts to external projects.
Well, this is unacceptable considering the market power Apple has. It's basically an occupational ban for mobile app development. Imagine, if GitHub won't let you join (maybe) because you criticized Microsoft on Twitter 10 years ago, or (maybe) it's because they don't like the way you dress.
"What's your greatest weakness?"
"Well, I can't develop your app for half the market, because Apple unexpectedly challenged me with a self-improvement journey. But I am well on my way, really introspecting to find out where I failed in life, where I may have misspoken. I am confident I can soon regain Apple's trust and approval for my life decision, and become a full-market developer!"
That was a decade ago, used on a single project and I kind of doubt Apple would link my Github account to my Apple Id.
It’s not that uncommon for a 3rd party to report a developer for violating Apple ToS. Frequently, it’s out of spite towards the offending party and not out of love for Apple. Also, Apple employees sometimes report stuff they stumble upon too. Bottom line is the fact you have a public GitHub project for over a decade that scrapes the AppStore and violates their terms and you were denied a developer account makes sense to me. Maybe you should consider your actions before publicly complaining of being wronged.
If a corporation really doesn't like you, they really don't like you.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/03/31/facial-reco...
While android also has this problem (requiring a Developer account), it is not that bad, because you can still publish apps outside of the app store. Sadly Google is hard at work to remove this functionality.
I also have hard feelings against the apple developer program. They prove to be incompetent and evil at all levels.
As someone learning Japanese, that seems very much like an app I would want and love. I hope you are able to sort this out soon so I can buy it!
Also Igor, if you are reading this, your GitHub and LinkedIn icons in your sites header link to GitHub and LinkedIn's homepages rather than your profiles. Probably want to fix that ;)
Thanks for noticing, I fixed the links.
That’s got to be something legal or regulatory. Some sort of sanction like black list
I don't think the issue at hand is coming up with plausible reasons, but the guessing.
Nothing should be less controversial for Apple to specify, than legal reasons beyond their control.
You may be right. His name sounds Russian or Slavic. Even then, another country's law shouldn't trump your own country's law. If he is on a blacklist of some country, ban him only there.
If you look at the about page, there are telltale signs that he is from Slovakia, which is an EU country, just like a bunch of other Slavic countries, such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria.
It's almost certainly fraud or AML concerns. Companies are not allowed to explain this stuff.
Please do not call me a Russian .. I am Slovak.
Have you considered filing a complaint with your local data protection agency? Perhaps they could escalate your GDPR request.
>Even then, another country's law shouldn't trump your own country's law. If he is on a blacklist of some country, ban him only there.
But Apple is an American company? If he's sanctioned for being a Putin affiliate or whatever, Apple has to abide those sanctions, even if he's not sanctioned in whatever country he lives in.
> If he's sanctioned for being a Putin affiliate or whatever
Unless you have specific incriminating evidence, please don't present this hypothetical nonsense as if it's a real possibility. Here's more information about the author: https://blog.kulman.sk/about/
What a shame that comments keep mentioning Russia just because the author's name is not "John Smith" or something.
That’s not how US secondary sanctions work.
Just sign up with someone else's name.
Had this all the time before I changed my name.
I bought a new SIM to have a new phone number, create a new email, registered a new Apple ID from a clean VM and different IP, got to the step where I have to pay for the dev account and all of the cards I used got me an error. Banks saying Apple did not even try charging them.
Maybe the VM is the problem - not sure if they let you sign up from emulated osx.
Couldn't that potentially cause problems for the person whose name you're using? I imagine it would likely violate Apple's terms of service and that person might risk losing access to whatever Apple services they rely on.
I got the same thing trying to sign up for Oracle Cloud.
Thankfully Oracle aren't the only cloud platform, of course. Which makes it even more fun telling my friends and colleagues how shit Oracle Cloud are whenever the topic of cloud providers comes up even funnier.
On the other hand, Apple's position of dominance here makes their refusal to answer a GDPR subject access request all the more galling.
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