iPhone pirates hack Spotify and other apps to listen to ad-free music for free

Popular iPhone apps like Spotify, Angry Birds and Pokemon Go are being pirated using technology developed by Apple, an investigation has revealed. By circumventing Apple's tightly controlled App Store, software pirates have been able to install versions of these apps that allow them to stream music and play games ad free, without having to pay a fee. Illicit software distributors such as TutuApp, Panda Helper, AppValley and TweakBox have found ways to use digital certificates to get access to a program Apple introduced to let corporations distribute business apps to their employees without going through the official app store. Using so-called enterprise developer certificates, these pirate operations are providing modified versions of popular apps to consumers, enabling them to stream music without ads and to circumvent fees and rules in games, depriving Apple and legitimate app makers of revenue. By doing so, the pirate app distributors are violating the rules of Apple's developer programs, which only allow apps to be distributed to the general public through the App Store.