William Gallagher
Apple has to comply with the EU's new law about rival App Stores, but it's protesting all the way and is now showing emails from users who fear the changes.
Ahead of the March 7, 2024 deadline and the facility for third-party app stores in the EU that will come with iOS 17.4, Apple has published a whitepaper detailing its compliance with the law, and its objections to it. As part of that, the whitepaper includes the text of 16 emails sent to Tim Cook by concerned users within the European Union.
"I am feeling increasingly more concerned and scared about my digital privacy and online safety in the EU," says one. "As an EU citizen and Apple user I always believed to have had the perfect balance between regulatory protection (like GDPR) and Apple safety features (like App Tracking Transparency and App Store)."
"I really hope that you will offer me as an EU Client the option to not use any sideloaders," says another. "I want to rely on the proven App Store and not some nonsense..."
"Please stop doing this," says yet another, who says they are "very satisfied with iOS because it is not like Android." This writer appears to believe the new rules are Apple's choice, and so concludes: "Please do not enable sideloading... we want iOS to be like the old one, with strict rules and extremely high security."
"I actually believe that the security of the iPhone and iPad and all other devices will be massively jeopardized if this update is installed," says one more. "I'm really scared of it and I think it makes the iPhone a little bit less secure as it is."
Apple's has continuously protested that rival app stores, or sideloading, presents a security risk to iPhone users. Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, has said that "sideloading is a cybercriminal's best friend."
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33 Comments
I fail to see why this is an issue for some. If you’re concerned about other AppStores and side loading apps, then the simple solution is to carry on doing what you’re doing with your phone and don’t download from anywhere else expect the AppStore. It’s really simple. If someone else’s security or device gets compromised then that’s their problem and not yours. Nothing for you to be concerned about. And just to confirm, I’m not in favour of alt app stores or sideloading either.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the EU regulations require Apple to permit side loading and other app stores, and not to require the users to use other app stores, right? If that's the case, most of these letters seem to be based on misinformation, and thus not really supportive of Apple's desire to avoid allowing other app stores.
Apple can’t protect users from themselves. All Apple can do it erect safety barriers to let users know when and where they are putting themselves at risk. The National Park Service puts fences around the edges of places like the Grand Canyon. This doesn’t stop people from climbing over the fences and occasionally they pay the ultimate price for their stupidity, uncontrollable impulses, or whatever motivates them to ignore the barriers and signs.
The sky is falling!
The issue most people are not understanding, especially the corrupt EU, is that once sideloading is possible, malware will be much easier to install on many iPhones. Just because I will never allow sideloading on my iPhone doesn't mean that my iPhone won't be subjected to malware from people who now have malware on theirs sending their malware to my iPhone through email and messages. The biggest malware will be government-sponsored and required apps, which some countries already force users to install. I will no longer have a choice, it will be made for me by government agencies demanding to have access to my personal items. I'm saying this because I know what can happen and have actively worked on securing Apple hardware for the last few decades. What the EU is doing is opening Pandora's box and they don't care.