Counter opinion
Billions of devices are scanned everyday thanks to specialized software that do it locally
They are called anti virus (also check for malware, trojan, backdoor, rootkit etc. etc.)
1. And most anti-virus are considered a scam by most people
2. Apps that make egregious use of device APIs to implement tracking won't be flagged as a virus.
Many people consider iPhone prices a scam
and yet...
> 2. Apps that make egregious use of device APIs to implement tracking won't be flagged as a virus.
That's true for the iPhone as well
Apple itself track its users.
from a news report in the Washington Post
> Apple says, “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.” Our privacy experiment showed 5,400 hidden app trackers guzzled our data — in a single week
The point was that the check could be implemented by third party software on the device or by a software specifically crafted by the publishers, you don't need the Apple check, which is also very opaque.
That's both fun and saddening, and also true
But I have to say that Apple store policies results in massive issues as well
The illusion of choice is more dangerous than too much freedom.
Scaling that review process across every update either means everyone pays a percentage which hurts large business or everyone pays a significant fee which hurts independent developers and discourages bug fixes.