While flagship products such as iPhones and iPads are protected by electronic cables and geo-keys, software is a different story.
Recently, Apple is facing a sophisticated form of software piracy, when technology users have taken advantage of the main AirDrop feature to ‘use’ applications from demo devices right at the Apple Store.
In an effort to create a luxury shopping space, Apple seems to have inadvertently facilitated “theft”. The lack of common security measures such as security magnetic gates or product protection stamps makes the Apple Store a “delicious bait” for customershave bad intentions. Although key products such as iPhones and iPads are protected by electronic cables and geo-locks, But software is a different story.
By taking advantage of AirDrop, one of the most beloved features on iPhones, customers can easily transfer proprietary software n, which is of great value, from the demo equipment at the store to the personal computer. What is surprising is that this activity took place for a long time without being detected, or maybe Apple already knew but “ignored?
On forums such as X and Reddit, many users have publicly shared about successfully “stealing” software from the Apple Store. Some people even said that they returned to the store to “update” the latest version after the “stealing” software encountered a hole i.
One user shared on X: “I already know how to get the official version of paid apps for Mac without paying hundreds of dollars. I went to the Apple Store with my Mac and transferred the app files from the display machine via AirDrop.”
Although there are many people who doubt this, however, some developers have confirmed that this trick is completely real. Accordingly, Apple applications will be stored in a memory area called .app. All related files and libraries are stored in the d areathis document. Just transfer the .app file from one machine to another and you can “install” the application on the new computer.
In fact, this method has been known since the beginning of 2017, but so far Apple has not taken measures to prevent it completely.
Apple’s incomprehensible silence on software piracy with AirDrop has many people questioning the real motiveof the “giant” of technology. Is Apple unaware of this security vulnerability, or are they putting the customer experience above intellectual property protection?
Disabling AirDrop on demo devices seems to be the simplest and most effective solution. However, this is contrary to Apple’s retail philosophy, which has always aimed to provide customers with a natural experience and the most comfortable.
However, there are also many opinions that this trick of stealing copyrighted software should not be supported and hope that Apple will soon find a way tointercepted.