![]() ![]() ![]() Here he pointed to the example of bogus COVID tracing apps that infected some (non-iPhone) smartphone users’ devices with ransomware early in the pandemic by targeting people who “could install apps from websites that lack the App Store’s defenses,” as he framed it. “I fear that we could soon lose the ability to provide some of those protections,” he suggested, framing looming competition-focused regulations as a risk to both “our privacy and security.”Īnd while Cook said some of these regulatory reforms may be well intentioned, he sketched an overwhelmingly negative outcome for users - if “data-hungry companies would be able to avoid our privacy rules, and once again track our users against their will,” as a result of laws forcing Apple to open iPhones to apps that circumvent App Store review via sideloading.Īpple is “deeply concerned about regulations that would undermine privacy and security in service of some other aim,” he said - also suggesting sideloading would “potentially give bad actors a way around the comprehensive security protections we’ve put in place, putting them in direct contact with our users.” On the contrary, Cook argued, giving users a choice to step outside the “rigorous security protections” he suggested Apple has baked into the App Store (via the app review process) - by letting iOS users sideload apps or even choose to use a non-Apple app store entirely - would ultimately reduce their control by removing a “more secure choice.” That’s why, said Cook, Apple has developed a series of features in recent years to help users counter commercial surveillance - and “have more control over their private information” - such as the App Tracking Transparency feature it added last year that requires apps to ask users for permission to track them, or an email address shielding feature Apple launched that makes it harder for third parties to link users’ web activity across different services.īut the Apple CEO soon sought to intertwine threats to user privacy - which he’d suggested are countered by giving users more controls to make tracking them harder - with the broader issue of security threats, such as posed by malware like ransomware - going on to argue that security as an overarching bolster for privacy isn’t helped by giving users more control over the choice of third-party software they can download. In the keynote speech this morning, Cook repeated a long standing claim that Apple believes privacy is “a fundamental human right” - hitting out once again at “a data industrial complex built on a foundation of surveillance” he said is working overtime to undermine web users’ privacy for its own commercial profit. Apple won’t have to make the App Store changes ordered in Epic ruling while case is appealed
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