Question about In App Purchases

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You hear about this all the time now, usually with apps purchased via the iTunes Store which allow further purchases from within the app itself. My question is this:

When you make an in app purchase, who exactly makes the charge? What company does the charging to your credit card? Is it Apple, or the developer of the app you're using to make the purchase? Because I would be a bit wary of giving strange developers access to my credit card information.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Since in-app purchases are processed through the iTunes Store, it's going to be Apple making the charges.

 

[That Weirdo In The Corner]

Apple never gives the developers credit card data, they don't even tell the developers your name or email address.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Alrighty then.

Side note: If app developers don't see your card #, how did that whole clusterfuck with Kingdom Conquest manage to happen? iTunes accounts themselves being hacked?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, when that happened, it was actual iTunes accounts being hacked--specifically, accounts with pre-paid iTunes credit, which was then spent by the fraudsters. At no time did the attackers have access to anyone's actual credit card information, though.