Will iPhone NDA mean 'Never Develop Apps?'

Back when the National Security Agency still had a low profile, before it became the villainous adversary of action movies or the subject of congressional inquiries, there was a quip amongst the agency's employees that the abbreviation NSA stood for "Never Say Anything." But shift just one letter in that abbreviation and you'll get "NDA," the document that's beginning to make Apple look more and more like the über-secretive government agency.

According to reports from developers, the latest close-mouthed move from Cupertino is that Apple has started branding its communication to developers--including App Store rejection messages--with all-caps notices that the messages are themselves covered by Apple's non-disclosure agreement.

It's not clear whether or not those messages are just reminders that such communication has always been covered by the NDA, or whether this is Apple actively extending the reach of the NDA--the terms of the agreement being themselves confidential--but it's worth observing that the change comes not long after a handful of app rejections became high-profile news.

Regardless of whether or not those communications have always been covered by Apple's confidentiality agreement, reinforcing that fact now is a tactical blunder on Apple's part. Because the last thing you want to do when people take issue with your lack of transparency is to institute more opacity. Apple's relationship with iPhone developers is quickly turning into a parody of security through obscurity--after all, if developers can't say anything, then how could anything possibly be wrong?

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