Yanked iOS app ‘Clueful’ now available as free Web software

Yanked iOS app ‘Clueful’ now available as free Web softwareAfter being yanked from Apple's App Store this summer for undisclosed reasons, Bitdefender's `Clueful' privacy-enhancing iOS app has now been made available as free Web software.

The Clueful app - which apparently has data on over 100,000 apps - is now available online as a free Web app that gives the users the ability to add their comments about other downloaded apps as well as about the way in which their data is handled by developers.

While Apple has a stringent app approval policy in place, and it screens apps for objectionable content before they are made available at the App Store, the Clueful app - which Bitdefender launched in iTunes in May for $3.99 - was removed for unknown reasons this summer, even though the app essentially give the users information about what the other apps, which they have downloaded on their iOS devices, do with their data.

Specifically speaking, the Clueful app tells the users things like whether the other apps are tracking their location; reading their address books; accessing calendars; tracking their usage via analytics networks; or draining their battery.

Despite the fact that a `confidentiality agreement' that app developers sign with Apple has prevented Bitdefender from disclosing why its Clueful app was pulled from the App Store, the company said in a recent release that it "continues to work with Apple" to bring the app back to the App Store.