Apple is cracking down on antivirus apps

Apple has begun a campaign to remove antivirus apps from its App Store, 9to5Mac reports.

One of the first casualties of Apple's crackdown was VirusBarrier iOS. A blog post published by the app's developer explained that "several companies" were affected by Apple's decision.

Mac Rumors published an interview with Intego, developer of VirusBarrier iOS. CEO Jeff Erwin explained that Apple sent Intego an email to inform it that the app had been removed from the App Store. Apple accused VirusBarrier of being "misleading."

Erin told Mac Rumors that Apple "does not want people to be misled into believing that there are viruses on iOS." He says that he "went up to the executive level" inside Apple, but it didn't budge.

There's no official announcement from Apple about its change in policies - it just started banning apps. What it's cracking down on are any apps that claim to scan iPhone for viruses, promising to fix any viruses that it finds. It seems that Apple doesn't want iPhone owners to believe that there are viruses on their phone just because an App Store app claims to be able to scan it and get rid of them.

It's possible that Apple could reverse that decision, though. It has a habit of changing its mind on app bans after fans and the media draw attention to it. That happened recently with Launcher, an app that let you fire up apps from your lock screen. But Apple suddenly yanked Launcher from the App Store. Apple allowed Launcher back ino the App Store this week, reversing its previous decision.