As part of a legislative crackdown in Europe aimed at giving consumers more options, Apple is allowing a few minor gaps in the digital fortress around the iPhone – with the risk of opening up new channels for hackers to steal financial and personal data stored on the devices.
The largest updates to the iPhone App Store since Apple first presented the idea in 2008 are being made with the revamp, which is only available in the European Union as of Thursday. In Europe, consumers can download iPhone apps from non-Apple stores and have more payment options for in-app purchases, among other things.
As Big Tech companies become more and more of a dominant presence in daily life, European regulators hope that the restrictions imposed by the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, will reduce the amount of power that these “digital gatekeepers” have over the goods and services that businesses and consumers use.
Only a few days have passed since Apple was fined over $2 billion (1.8 billion euros) by EU regulators for impeding competition in the music streaming sector.
Apple has aimed at the new rules in Europe, claiming that they will put iPhone users at needless risk of security breaches. The company has long barred pornography, illegal drugs, and other content from its App Store, and now users are more vulnerable to scams and other malicious attacks that are launched by apps that are downloaded from outside its ecosystems.
Laptops 1000Apple is cautioning that “the changes the DMA requires will inevitably cause a gap between the protections that Apple users outside of the EU can rely on and the protections available to users in the EU moving forward,” despite the company’s best efforts to uphold security precautions while also complying with the new regulations in the 27-nation bloc.
However, several smaller digital firms, including the developer of video games Epic Games and the music streaming site Spotify, are criticizing Apple’s DMA compliance, calling it little more than a front that makes a “mockery” of the legislation’s intentions.
In a letter dated March 1, Spotify, Epic, and over two dozen other businesses and alliances stated that “Apple’s new terms will erect new barriers and reinforce Apple’s stronghold over the iPhone ecosystem, rather than creating healthy competition and new choices.” The European Commission, which is in charge of overseeing the DMA, received the letter.
The company that created the well-liked video game Fortnite, Epic, claims that Apple has already flagrantly violated the DMA by denying its desire to launch a rival iPhone app store in Sweden. Epic claimed that Apple blocked its entry into the market in punishment for harsh criticisms posted by CEO Tim Sweeney, who led an unsuccessful antitrust lawsuit against the U.S. iPhone App Store.
In response, EU authorities stated on Thursday that they wish to speak with Apple on claims that it has obstructed Epic’s app store. Apple was unyielding, claiming that because of Epic’s prior actions, it “chose to exercise that right” to shut down the app store.
The changing digital landscape in Europe is also causing other internet giants like Google and Facebook to make adjustments, but Apple’s ideology of having complete control over every aspect of its products is fundamentally challenged by the new restrictions.
Laptops 1000The “walled garden” strategy, which was developed by the late co-founder Steve Jobs, starts with the careful hardware design and continues with all of the software that powers the devices and manages the transactions that take place on them.
The strategy created an empire that generates close to $400 billion in revenue annually; Apple attributes this success to the trust that it has earned over the course of decades of careful management of the iPhone and other well-known products like the iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
Even Sweeney from Epic admitted that he uses an iPhone in part because of Apple’s strong security protocols, which are in place to deter hackers and safeguard users’ privacy. That occurred during testimony at a trial held in May 2021, which led to a finding by an American judge that the App Store isn’t a monopoly.
In that ruling, the judge mandated that Apple start permitting links to external payment processors within iPhone applications in the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on that matter, so the business started allowing it earlier this year.
Apple continues to forbid alternative iPhone app shops in the United States and more than 100 other non-EU nations, despite the company implementing adjustments in Europe through an upgrade to the iPhone software.
European regulators seem to be persuaded that consumers will gain more from expanded competition than from increasing security dangers.
Lower pricing for digital transactions within apps could be a benefit if rival retailers impose charges that are less than the 15% to 30% that Apple has been charging for years.
However, detractors are questioning whether that will occur because Apple continues to want to impose fees upon app downloads meeting comparatively modest thresholds and has erected additional obstacles that would make it difficult for competing products to gain traction in Europe.
Apple, on the other hand, maintains that the security issues raised by the DMA are so serious that it has received requests from government organizations, particularly those in the banking, emergency services, and defense sectors, to make sure they will be able to prevent employees using iPhones to access apps that are distributed outside of Apple’s walled garden.
Apple stated that “all of these agencies have realized that sideloading—downloading apps from outside the App Store—could compromise security and jeopardize government data and devices.”
