10 votes

The app that broke the Iowa Caucuses was sent out through a beta testing platform

2 comments

  1. gpl
    Link
    🤦♂️

    The screenshot from Motherboard also shows that the app was distributed using the platform’s free tier and not its enterprise one. That means Shadow didn’t even pony up for the TestFairy plan that comes with single sign-on authentication, unlimited data retention, and end-to-end encryption. Instead, it looks like the company used the version of TestFairy anyone can try for free, which deletes any app data after 30 days and limits the number of test users that can access the app to 200.

    🤦‍♂️

    20 votes
  2. Deimos
    Link
    I don't think this is meaningful—that's a reasonable way to distribute an app to a small, known group. It probably would have been weirder if it was in the app store, because it was only intended...

    I don't think this is meaningful—that's a reasonable way to distribute an app to a small, known group. It probably would have been weirder if it was in the app store, because it was only intended for a very small group of people and has no functionality for anyone else. I doubt it even could have passed review because of that.

    Really, it probably shouldn't have been an app at all. A website with a few text fields seems like it could have done the job.

    Also, I'm kind of inclined to remove this post and keep it all inside the single existing thread. Despite what it looks like on most of the internet today, I don't think this story is actually nearly interesting enough to justify hundreds of articles about every tiny detail someone finds. There was a poorly-built app that didn't work for collecting the results. The results are coming out anyway, less than 24 hours later. It doesn't matter very much.

    15 votes