My personal solution is to install the app, give it a very bad rating with the reason why I am pissed off as a comment and delete the app.
Ohhh. I like that idea. I'm going to start doing that.
Your installs are improving their App Store ranking anyway though!
Are they? I don't think so. And especially not if the all is uninstalled within minutes. Apple puts much more weight into the ranking than into 'total downloads' (which would be the only increasing metric in this case.
Not if you uninstall right away.
Also how is iOS so bad it just opens the Store without asking?
That's not iOS, just Safari. Tweetbot, for example, prompts you if a webpage within it tries to take you out of the app.
That's an iOS feature. Any app that attempts to redirect you to the App Store will throw up that interstitial.
Safari is the odd one out, there. No idea why it's allowed to avoid it.
Ultimate Guitar, I'm looking at you. The worst.
Their push to install the app is horrendous. It just keeps getting worse too!
Some clueless investor pouring more money indirectly towards junior devs, to keep implementing pointyhairbrained schemes. At least, I hope it's that and not worse!
Rotten Tomatoes was serving one of those last week. Made me very mad.
That happens in Android sometimes, too, but my evidence-free sense is that it's usually rogue ad network participants because the app is usually some mundane game.
That and I wonder if the ads themselves don't contain Apple affiliate links and are just cookie stuffing.