“Noonlight” Switches To New Design That Is Strikingly Similar To Parachute
“Noonlight”, the Tinder-affiliated safety app with a history of ethically questionable practices has switched to a new design that is strikingly and confusingly similar to Parachute. Parachute’s design philosophy has remained intact since its launch more than five years ago, as have Parachute’s signature look, feel, and brand identity. Parachute has absolutely no affiliation or connection with “Noonlight”.
For comparison, here is Parachute’s central screen and app icon:
“Noonlight” was the subject of a Gizmodo investigation that unveiled the app’s pervasive sharing of customer information with data collection companies. The app’s developers initially denied engaging in these practices: “When asked about the company’s marketing partners specifically, the spokesperson—and the company’s cofounders, according to the spokesperson—initially denied that the company worked with any at all”. However, their founder later admitted to sending customer information to data collection companies in a statement to Gizmodo.
Parachute’s forensic analysis of the third-party data collection practices of popular safety apps found that “Noonlight” sends their customers’ information to a large number of data collection companies and engages in the controversial practice of snooping on their customers’ clipboard (which Apple is addressing in its upcoming iOS14 release).
“Noonlight” has also previously been in breach of Apple App Store rules designed to protect consumers from fraud. Video evidence shows that “Noonlight” was evading the display of mandatory in-app disclosure text for recurring auto-renewing subscriptions, which would have normally led to the app being rejected by Apple’s App Review team. This was done by quickly covering up the compliant purchase screen with a non-compliant screen that did not contain the required disclosure text. As shown in the screen recordings, this breach of rules persisted across multiple versions and design iterations of the app. Apple’s 3.8(b) mandatory disclosure text policies were in effect between May 2017 and June 2019, after which they were phased out and integrated into the purchase screen displayed by iOS (“ Apple Will Reject Your Subscription App if You Don’t Include This Disclosure “).
Parachute is the most powerful safety app in the world. In the event of an emergency, it calls, texts and emails your friends and loved ones and sends them your live video, audio and location, straight from the scene
Originally published on The Parachute Blog on Jun 24, 2020
