Oops, Apple approved another illegal streaming app
The French-language app shows new movies like Terrifier 3 and Venom: The Last Dance. | Image: Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Another illegal streaming app has made its way to the App Store — but it only surfaces pirated films for people in certain regions outside the US, including France, Canada, and the Netherlands.
As shown in a post on Threads, the App Store listing for “Univer Note” presents itself as a productivity platform that can “easily help you record every day’s events and plan your time.” However, if you’re a user in certain countries, like France or Canada, opening the app shows a collection of pirated movies, such as Venom: The Last Dance, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Terrifier 3. Options within the app are labeled in French, while films stream in their original language with French subtitles or dubbing.
Anyone else who downloads the app in an unsupported region, such as the US, will only see a productivity app, a strategy we’ve seen used by other piracy apps to evade detection from reviewers. One recent example was Kimi earlier this year, which posed as a vision-testing tool and was quickly removed after news outlets began reporting about it. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about this app.
The French-language app shows new movies like Terrifier 3 and Venom: The Last Dance. | Image: Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Another illegal streaming app has made its way to the App Store — but it only surfaces pirated films for people in certain regions outside the US, including France, Canada, and the Netherlands.
As shown in a post on Threads, the App Store listing for “Univer Note” presents itself as a productivity platform that can “easily help you record every day’s events and plan your time.” However, if you’re a user in certain countries, like France or Canada, opening the app shows a collection of pirated movies, such as Venom: The Last Dance, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Terrifier 3. Options within the app are labeled in French, while films stream in their original language with French subtitles or dubbing.
Anyone else who downloads the app in an unsupported region, such as the US, will only see a productivity app, a strategy we’ve seen used by other piracy apps to evade detection from reviewers. One recent example was Kimi earlier this year, which posed as a vision-testing tool and was quickly removed after news outlets began reporting about it. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about this app.