by Apple is opening small cracks in the iPhone’s digital fortress as part of a regulatory push in Europe to give consumers more choices – which risks creating new ways for hackers to steal personal and financial information stored on the devices.
The overhaul carried out on Thursday last week in the European Union represents the biggest changes to the iPhone’s App Store since Apple introduced the concept in 2008.
Among other things, people in Europe can download iPhone apps from stores not operated by Apple and are finding other ways to pay for in-app transactions.
European regulators hope the changes mandated by the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, will loosen the control that Big Tech “digital giants” have gained over the products and services used by consumers and businesses as they become more dominant forces in everyday life.
The measures came into effect just days after EU regulators fined Apple nearly €1.8 billion for stifling competition in the music streaming market.
Apple has grappled with the new regulations on unnecessary security risks for iPhone users in Europe, exposing them to more scams and other malicious attacks launched from apps downloaded from outside its ecosystem and raising the morale of more unsatisfactory services. mostly pornography, illegal drugs, and other content that the company has long banned in its App Store.
Despite trying to maintain security protections and comply with the new rules in the 27-nation bloc, Apple is warning that “there will be a gap between the protections Apple users outside the EU can rely on and the changes required by the DMA. protections available to users in the EU moving forward”.
Apple’s warnings should be taken with a grain of salt, experts say.
Managing mobile devices is “completely different” from third-party app stores, and Apple is “deliberately confusing it here to muddy the waters,” said Michael Veale, an associate professor at University College London who specializes in digital rights and regulation.
“Apple’s App Store is not a proxy for corporate data security — apps inside regularly send data to unsecured cloud servers, hidden third-party trackers, and much more,” he said.
Some smaller tech companies like music streaming service Spotify and video game maker Epic Games are also attacking Apple’s compliance with the DMA as little more than a facade that “mockerizes” the intent of the regulations.
“Apart from creating healthy competition and new options, Apple’s new terms will erect new barriers and strengthen Apple’s hold over the iPhone ecosystem,” wrote Spotify, Epic and more than two dozen other companies and alliances in a letter to the European Commission on 1 March, the executive arm of the EU that oversees the DMA.
Epic, which makes the popular Fortnite game, also argues that Apple is already brazenly violating the DMA by refusing to release another iPhone app store it planned to release in Sweden. Epic asserted that Apple blocked its bid to compete in retaliation for scathing reviews posted by CEO Tim Sweeney, who led an unsuccessful antitrust case against the iPhone App Store in the United States.
In response, EU regulators said Thursday they want to question Apple over allegations it blocked the Epic app store. Apple was defiant, saying it “chose to exercise that right” to launch the app store based on Epic’s past behavior.
Europe’s changing digital landscape is forcing changes on other tech powerhouses such as Google and Facebook, but the new regulations are at the heart of Apple’s philosophy of maintaining control over every aspect of its products.
This “walled garden” approach coined by the late co-founder Steve Jobs starts with the meticulous design of the hardware and then extends into all the software that powers devices, as well as oversees the commerce they’re doing .
This approach built an empire with nearly $400 billion (€365 billion) in annual revenue—a success Apple traces to the confidence it has built over years of careful management of the iPhone and other popular products such as the iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. .
Even Epic’s Sweeney admitted that one of the reasons he uses an iPhone is because of the strong security measures that Apple has implemented to prevent hackers and protect the privacy of its customers. That came during testimony in a trial in May 2021 that led to a US judge ruling that the App Store is not a monopoly.
In that decision, the judge required Apple to start allowing links to external payment options inside iPhone apps in the United States.
Apple – which is making changes in Europe through iPhone software updates – does not allow alternative iPhone app stores in the US or more than 100 other countries outside the EU.
European regulators seem convinced that the potential benefits for consumers from more competition outweigh any increased security risks.
A potential positive is lower prices for digital transactions within apps if competing stores charge lower commissions than the 15 percent to 30 percent fees Apple has imposed for years.
But critics are raising doubts that will happen because Apple still plans to charge after app downloads reach relatively low thresholds and has set up other hurdles that will make it daunting to make alternatives to go to make significant progress in Europe.
Apple argues that the security problems raised by the DMA are so worrying that it is hearing from government agencies – particularly those in the defence, banking and emergency services – trying to ensure they can block employees with iPhones from accessing externally distributed apps. Apple wall garden.
“All of these agencies recognized that sideloading – downloading apps from outside the App Store – could compromise security and put government data and devices at risk,” Apple said.
Veale, the digital expert, pushed back.
“Any business or government that believes ‘apps from the App Store are safe’ may need to refresh their staff or their security and data protection policies,” he said.
