The Amazon shopping app in the Google Play Store on an Android smartphone.
Christoph Dernbach | picture alliance | Getty Images
Apple has removed Fakespot, a well-known app for detecting fake product reviews, from its App Store after Amazon complained the app provided misleading information and potential security risks.
Fakespot’s app works by analyzing the credibility of an Amazon listing’s reviews and gives it a grade of A through F. It then provides shoppers with recommendations for products with high customer satisfaction.
Amazon said it reported Fakespot to Apple for investigation after it grew concerned that a redesigned version of the app confused consumers by displaying Amazon’s website in the app with Fakespot code and content overlaid on top of it. Amazon said it doesn’t allow applications to do this. An Amazon spokesperson claimed, “The app in question provides customers with misleading information about our sellers and their products, harms our sellers’ businesses, and creates potential security risks.”
By Friday afternoon, following a review from Apple, the app was no longer available on the App Store.
Misleading or fake user reviews have proven to be a major problem for online retailers, including Amazon. The company has recently ramped up its efforts to detect and cull fake reviews. Its third-party marketplace, made up of millions of sellers, has grown to account for more than half of the company’s overall sales, but it has become fertile ground for fake reviews, counterfeits and unsafe products. Regulators in the U.S. and abroad have taken steps to curb fake reviews on and off Amazon.
As fake reviews continue to proliferate the internet, third-party apps and websites have sprung up to help shoppers spot them, such as Fakespot, ReviewMeta and ReconBob.
Amazon reported well-known fake review detector app Fakespot to Apple for investigation, triggering its removal from the App Store.
Amazon
It’s unclear why Apple removed Fakespot from its App Store, and Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Amazon pointed CNBC to two subsections of Apple’s App Store guidelines that Fakespot may have violated. One guideline states that apps must make sure they’re permitted to use, access, monetize access to or display content from a third-party service. Another guideline states that apps should not include false information and features.
Amazon also claims Fakespot’s coding technique makes it possible for the app to collect and track information from customers. The company last January made similar claims against PayPal-owned Honey, a browser extension that lets users find coupons while shopping online, warning users it could be a “security risk.”
Fakespot: ‘They’ve shown zero proof’
In an interview, Fakespot founder and CEO Saoud Khalifah said he disputed Amazon’s claim that the app presents security risks and said that while Fakespot does collect some user data, it doesn’t sell it to third parties.
Khalifah added that many apps use the same coding technique, called “wrapping,” to include a web browser view, such as coupon providers. He said many apps and websites also collect and track user information, including Amazon.
“We don’t steal users’ information, we’ve never done that,” Khalifah said. “They’ve shown zero proof and Apple acted on this with zero proof.”
Fakespot released a new version of its app at the end of May. Amazon reported the app to Apple in mid-June, Khalifah said.
Khalifah said he was upset that Apple didn’t give Fakespot adequate warning that the app would be taken down from the App Store, or the ability to rectify issues with the app.
“Imagine going to a tenant and saying you have to take all your stuff, you have to leave right now. That’s how I feel right now, to be quite honest with you,” he added.
Fakespot’s app is still available on the Google Play Store for Android devices as of Friday evening.
Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi, speaking with CNBC at the annual Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 10th, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
SoFi shares fell almost 6% in extended trading Thursday after the fintech company announced a $1.5 billion stock offering.
The company, which provides online loans and other banking services, said in a press release that it will use the proceeds for “general corporate purposes, including but not limited to enhancing capital position, increasing optionality and enabling further efficiency of capital management, and funding incremental growth and business opportunities.”
The announced offering comes after SoFi’s market cap almost doubled so far in 2025. The stock price is up more than sixfold since the end of 2022.
A company’s share price often drops on a planned share sale as the offering dilutes the value of existing holders’ stakes.
In its third-quarter earnings release in late October, SoFi reported revenue growth of 38% from a year earlier to $961.6 million, while net income more than doubled to $139.4 million. The company reported cash and equivalents of $3.25 billion.
Lisa Jackson, senior vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple Inc., speaks during the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple’s general counsel, Kate Adams, and its vice president for environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, are retiring from the company, the iPhone maker announced on Thursday.
Jennifer Newstead, Meta’s chief legal officer, will become Apple’s new general counsel in March, and Jackson’s government affairs staff will report to her starting late next year, Apple said.
The two executives, who both reported to Apple CEO Tim Cook, are the latest members of senior leadership to exit the company. In recent weeks, Apple’s head software designer said he was leaving to join Meta, while Apple said its AI chief was retiring, along with its chief operating officer.
Adams joined Apple from Honeywell and became general counsel in 2017, and oversaw legal matters including litigation, global security, and the company’s privacy initiatives. Under Adams, Apple grappled with rising antitrust scrutiny and regulation around the world, including major lawsuits in the U.S. over the iPhone App Store’s restrictions and fees.
Jackson joined Apple in 2013, and led the company’s diversity programs as well as much of its policy work in Washington, D.C. Before that, she spent four years as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a position she was appointed to by President Barack Obama.
With her emphasis in areas like social justice and renewable energies, Jackson’s job lost relevance during the second Trump administration, which has publicly denounced diversity, equity and inclusion programs and slammed efforts to combat climate change.
Apple has faced increased tariffs from the Trump administration, and Cook has met with President Donald Trump several times to tout the company’s American manufacturing plans as part of an effort to influence policy.
Jackson was instrumental in Apple’s launch of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative following the 2020 murder of George Floyd. She then helped expand the company’s equity and justice efforts to other countries, including the U.K., Mexico and New Zealand, according to a report published in 2023.
“At Apple, we pledge that our resolve will not fade,” Jackson wrote in a section of that report. “We won’t delay action. We will work, each and every day, on the urgent task of advancing equity.”
Jackson also worked on Apple’s environmental image. Her job “focused on reducing greenhouse gases, protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination, and expanding outreach to communities on environmental issues,” according to her bio on the company’s website. She discussed Apple’s plans to become carbon neutral at iPhone launch events.
Jackson also accompanied Cook to several official functions in Washington, including state dinners.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple Vice President Lisa Jackson arrive at the White House for a state dinner on April 10, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images
Newstead, who will become Apple’s top lawyer, has overseen Meta’s legal and regulatory matters pertaining to its family of apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp since 2019. A Meta spokesperson said Newstead will be staying through the end of the year and that the company is actively searching for her replacement.
Prior to Meta, Newstead served as a Trump-appointed legal advisor at the State Department during the president’s first administration in 2019.
Before that, she was a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget, among other roles in the U.S. government.
A general view of the Microsoft office building is seen in Cologne, Germany, on November 18, 2025.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Microsoft said Thursday that it will increase the prices of Office productivity software subscriptions for commercial and government clients on July 1.
The company’s Office applications, which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, have been facing increased competition in recent years from Google.
“We are continuously investing and innovating our platform for the future,” Nicole Herskowitz, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 and Copilot, wrote in a blog post. “In the last year, we released more than 1,100 features across Microsoft 365, Security, Copilot, and SharePoint.” The new features have added value to the suites, she wrote.
Price hikes for commercial Office subscriptions have been infrequent. In 2022, Microsoft raised prices of its productivity bundles for the first time since launching the original Office 365 subscriptions in 2011. Microsoft changed the name of Office 365 to Microsoft 365 in 2020. In January, Microsoft announced a price hike for consumer Office bundles.
Microsoft offers Office 365 subscriptions for commercial use that include access to its productivity applications, along with higher-priced Microsoft 365 subscriptions that also include Windows operating system updates.
Here’s a breakdown of the commercial price changes:
For small and medium-sized businesses, Microsoft 365 Business Basic will cost $7 per person per month, up from $6.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard will be available for $14, up from $12.50.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium will continue to cost $22.
The entry-level Office 365 E1 offering for enterprises will still be sold for $10.
Office 365 E3 will jump 13% to $26 from $23.
The Microsoft 365 E3 package including Windows for enterprises will rise 8% to $39 from $36.
The full-featured Microsoft 365 E5 will increase to $60 from $57.
For front-line workers such as cashiers, Microsoft 365 F1 subscriptions will cost $3, up from $2.25.
Microsoft 365 F3 will be available for $10, up from $8.
The U.S. Defense Department and other government clients will face similar percentage price increases.
The various subscriptions all exclude access to the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on that draws on generative artificial intelligence models. Some companies have started widely rolling out Copilot, while others have held off on expanding their deployments, CNBC reported last week.
In many cases, organizations receive discounts off of list prices, but Microsoft has cut back on direct volume deals for some types of customers.
Almost 43% of Microsoft’s $77.7 billion in fiscal first-quarter revenue came from its Productivity and Businesses Processes segment, which includes Office. In October, the company said revenue from Microsoft 365 commercial cloud services jumped 17%, while seats increased 6%, mainly from products targeting small and medium-sized businesses and front-line workers.