Yeah, I think the latter is more likely than the former. Perhaps a server side bug that's silently downloading the app on any device that's installed it previously?
replyBut why this one specific app and no others?
replyMaybe it’s like that time Apple thought everyone wanted that awful free U2 album that they automatically added to everyone’s iTunes library. (I know this isn’t actually the case but it’s the funniest explanation)
replyMaybe it’s Apple’s equivalent of Guru Meditation.
replyMaybe Apple typo’d an app id incorrectly for some iOS core app thing in 26.4.2 and the one-character error is this app? I don’t know that anyone’s done a ‘likelihood of collision’ analysis on appstore unique IDs yet. Certainly I could see iOS having a “must be on the device” system set up for apps like Phone and Settings that has a last-ditch of reinstalling it if somehow deleted. Would be especially interesting if some core app that can’t normally be deleted is currently unprotected (back up your device locally first!).
replyRight, that's what confuses me the most. I was very surprised to find the reddit thread showing that other people are also having this specific app silently installed on their devices.
replyHeadspace leaves health data, that's where my first guess would be
replyOr it is a mandated backdoor, and someone internally objected, and made it easier to exploit than it should be, or leaked how to exploit it?
reply> mandated backdoor
replyProbably one from the repository of backdoors "accidentally" introduced or "never" discovered.
The mechanism's there, just needs to be woven with other exploits.
Makes no sense for headspace to be using it if that were the case.
replyMy guess is it's a bug on the App Store side which will actually hurt Headspace in the long run. If this was a casino app I'd feel a bit differently, but I'd be shocked if someone at Headspace did this deliberately.
replyI'm trying to imagine the headspace of a user who deletes an app, only to see it pop back the next morning. Probably not a very relaxing experience :)
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