Apple abruptly revokes Google’s enterprise certificate

Apple offers enterprise certificates to large companies like Google and Facebook for the purpose of distributing apps internally, amongst the companys’ employees that facilitate their jobs. One of the rules of this certificate is that enterprises should not use it to distribute apps to consumers.

Both Google and Facebook were identified as companies doing this and while Facebook’s certificate was revoked yesterday (and has very recently been reinstated), Apple pulled the rug under Google today when it did the same thing.

Regardless of whether Apple intended to act on Google so abruptly, the two companies seem to be actively working to rectify the situation. Google told The Verge that its “working with Apple to fix a temporary disruption of some of [its] corporate apps, which [it] expect[s] will be resolved soon”. Meanwhile, Apple told Buzzfeed in a statement: “We are working together with Google to help them reinstate their enterprise certificates very quickly.”

Following Facebook’s certificate revocation, Apple warned that “any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked.”

So while the rules apply equally to all companies, Apple didn’t hesitate to react to the unintended use of the enterprise certificate with Google. As for misuse of the certificate, The Verge reports that Google and Facebook aren’t the only ones distributing beta apps to consumers. DoorDash, Amazon, and Sonos are all doing the same thing.

Via