Apple claimed the European Union’s new rules would make phones on the continent less secure.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act, or DMA, will come into force shortly and aims to impose new controls on big tech companies and offer more choice to their users.
For Apple, this involves a number of changes, including allowing users to use alternative app stores to download apps from Apple’s official app stores. Apps will also need to be allowed to use alternative payment methods.
Apple recently announced that it aims to comply with these rules and provided details on how to do this. But he also criticized the new rules and said it would introduce new dangers.
More details have now been revealed about how the processes will work, with warnings that they will make people unsafe.
This means people may be forced to use new technologies, such as alternative app stores, even if they don’t want to use them. This alternative referred to school or business applications that could be placed in app stores; This left people with little choice but to use new, potentially unsafe ways to download apps.
The iPhone maker has published a new whitepaper explaining how it will introduce new features to protect users from cyber attacks, malware and other risks under this new system, but the company said it cannot completely eliminate risks.
Until now, only apps approved to appear in Apple’s App Store could be downloaded on the iPhone, and purchases made in the App Store had to be made through Apple’s own payment system (a “walled garden” as Apple claims). allows it to keep users and their data completely safe.
In its new report, Apple warns that it “cannot protect users in the same way” as it must change its “uniquely successful approach” to “protecting users’ security and privacy.”
“In line with what users have come to expect from Apple, we have designed and implemented new security measures to help protect and inform users to continue providing them with the safest, most privacy-protecting, and most secure platform,” the white paper says.
“While the changes required by the DMA will inevitably lead to a gap between the protections that Apple users outside the EU can rely on and those offered to users in the EU, we are working tirelessly to ensure that iPhone remains the most secure product of all applications. “Although we cannot eliminate it, we can use existing phones in the EU, reducing the risks brought by these necessary changes.”
Apple has announced that under its new system, it will introduce a new baseline review program for all apps, regardless of whether they will be distributed in the App Store or in an alternative app market.
Apple said it would electronically sign every app distributed in the EU “once it has been checked and cleaned for known malware and security threats, generally works as advertised and does not expose users to egregious fraud.”
However, the company confirmed that these new controls will not cover app content.
And it warned that this could mean that content it does not allow in the App Store could appear on the iPhone operating system in the EU.
“This means that Apple cannot block apps that contain content that Apple does not allow on the App Store – such as apps that distribute pornography, apps that encourage the consumption of tobacco or e-cigarette products, illegal drugs or excessive amounts of alcohol. Whitepaper’ It was stated that applications or applications that contain pirated content (or steal other developers’ ideas or intellectual property) will be prevented from being offered in alternative application markets.
However, the US tech giant has promised “continuous monitoring” of apps to detect and remove malicious apps it uncovers.
Under the new system in the EU, Apple will start showing pop-up, on-screen warnings to users when they are about to leave the App Store and download an app or make a payment outside of the store and Apple’s payment system.
The company said this will allow users to “make informed choices about the apps they download.”
Apple said it had contacted consumers, governments and government bodies inside and outside the EU who wanted reassurance and clarity about the security of the platform under the new rules.
Some other tech companies have previously accused Apple of maintaining its monopoly on the app market by not allowing rival app marketplaces or payment methods on the App Store.
The European Commission argues that the DMA provides more and better services for consumers to choose from and increases their opportunity to switch providers if they wish, which will ultimately lead to fairer prices and increase innovation in the sector.
Additional reporting by agencies