I agree with this statement. At the same time I don't think opening up some APIs inevitably leads to less security. Apple still controls how the APIs are implemented.
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Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Over Feature Delays
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You can share that valuable info with apps. It's just behind a privacy toggle (which is a good thing). My VPN app uses this to decide if it should connect to my VPN when I'm not at home or in my office.
There is not a way to give an app the full history of every wifi network you have ever connected to. There is a way for apps to get the name of the current wifi network, but not a history of all of them.
Is this a concrete example of something the EU or a competitor is demanding from Apple? Because I can't think of a scenario right now where this kind of access would be required.
Do you notice how your sentence veered off from "the phone knows" to "Apple ha(ving) access to it"?
There is no law that requires Apple to allow access to every on-device password to any third-party developer.
But yeah... if the gatekeeper "takes" my password to sync it somewhere else in providing services or accessories, so should other developers be (in order not to be disadvantaged).
With user consent. "Do you want to allow app X or accessory Y to your Wi-Fi password?" - simple as that. Maybe I don't want to share all of my passwords with other Apple devices - but with some other manufacturer's device or service.
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Apple has to offer their new features to the competition? Are the completion going to pay for the development costs and a fee to use the features? Are they insane? What the hell are the regulators in the EU smoking? Is this why the EU cannot have their own thriving technology sector? Incompetence and buffoonery?
I don't know more than what is in the linked article from Apple:
The DMA also lets other companies request access to user data and core technologies of Apple products. Apple is required to meet almost every request, even if they create serious risks for our users.
So far, companies have submitted requests for some of the most sensitive data on a user’s iPhone. The most concerning include:
- The complete content of a user’s notifications: This data includes the content of a user’s messages, emails, medical alerts, and any other notifications a user receives. And it would reveal data to other companies that currently, even Apple can’t access.
- The full history of Wi-Fi networks a user has joined: Wi-Fi history can reveal sensitive information about a user’s location and activities. For instance, companies can use it to track whether you’ve visited a certain hospital, hotel, fertility clinic, or courthouse.
Not to mention being able to use software to differentiate its products, like with the live translation. Why should Apple be forced to give that to Bose or B&O? Bose is perfectly capable of developing such a feature and including it in the Bose Headphone App. It shouldn't be Apple's job to do R&D for all of the headphone companies. But the DMA demands that Apple give access to that feature to any developer or hardware manufacturer who wants it for free. Not "you have to license it at a reasonable price" (which would still be an overreach IMO, but more justifiable). But give it away for free. In any other circumstance we'd call that theft.
By definition, if the phone knows it, Apple's OS has access to it. The phone knows what wifi networks you've connected to in the past, so it can helpfully prioritize those when you connect to them in the future. There is no reason any developer needs that for anything other than tracking users. I'm honestly shocked you think it's ok to force Apple to give that data up.
I think this is plain fearmongering. Just because a third-party demands that access, does not automatically mean, that Apple has to grant it. There are generous exceptions for legitimate security and privacy concerns. Also remember, many EU employees very likely also use Apple products and will be very aware of the privacy implications.
Sharing your password with a competitor's service or accessory product.
If Apple can seamlessly "share" all of my passwords to their smartwatch or online "cloud" services , so may someone else. So I don't have to type in my passwords all again on my non-Apple smartwatch.
Huh? It’s being done with the rest of the world countries.
EU citizen and resident here. The EU promised peace. We have war. It promised prosperity - we have none, every major EU country sliding and in debt. It promised security, the streets if most major cities are less secure than they were 30 years ago. Ursula Van der Lyen? A paper Tiger. 30,000 lobbyists.
The minions of faceless, overpaid bureaucrats lends truth the they saying: America innovates, China imitates and the EU regulates.
The EU is just trying to make itself relavant - except that it isn’t. Net:net - I get less features on a phone and platform; that I FREELY chose to adopt as an individual excercising my free will. My tax euros pay for all sorts of meaningless activities like the one we’re discussing here. Wish it weren’t true …
...and yet, the streets of any major European city or metropolitan are much safer than the America's.
Their OS. On-device. But not the company itself, nor its accessory products or online services.
I just explained one.
And if I want to sync/backup my Wi-Fi passwords on Proton, 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, and NordPass or someone else's cloud rather than Apple's iCloud, that'd be a valid use case, too.
You're judging your quality of life by a handful of smartphone features the "evil EU" is withholding from you. I bet that 99% of the world population would like to have your problems.
That does not require a history every wifi network you've ever connected to, which is one of the examples Apple cited and the one we are discussing.
They never have a problem complying in China.
Weird.
Weird.
When it comes to setting Wi-Fi preferences for my Garmin watch, Meta glasses or whatever, it may very well.
Remember, the law is intended to level the playing field. It's designed to allow third party some (not every) similar access to Apple's own. If Apple doesn't access or use certain data, neither is it required to provide it to third parties.
Begs the question: Why and how does Apple access, use or transmit a history of every Wi-Fi network I've ever connected to? To services or other products within their ecosystem?
Apple is 100% right on this. I am in the EU, and they are about to do a 180degree spin on consumer's privacy . It's complete hypocrisy at this point, as they are about to introduce one of the most privacy-invasive laws ever made in the world, ChatControl . All communication devices will need to build a backdoor where all messages will be scanned automatically by an AI, and photos or messages deemed suspicous will be transmited to the authorities for verification without the user knowledge.
This is why they are forcing Apple to weaken their privacy measures.
I hope Apple fights them the same way they fought the UK when they wanted access a backdoor to iCloud and make good on their threat to simply stop shipping their products to the EU.
People here are incredibly naive thinking this is just because "AppPle Iz greEdyyy !"
If you're in Europe, please be aware of that, sign the petitions opposing it and contact your parliament members while it's still time.
This is why they are forcing Apple to weaken their privacy measures.
I hope Apple fights them the same way they fought the UK when they wanted access a backdoor to iCloud and make good on their threat to simply stop shipping their products to the EU.
People here are incredibly naive thinking this is just because "AppPle Iz greEdyyy !"
If you're in Europe, please be aware of that, sign the petitions opposing it and contact your parliament members while it's still time.
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that’s not leveling the playing field. that’s the EU way, make the iPhone into android. Make it less safe than it was.
Apple will continue to hold core tech from the EU. It’s what the EU requested and they got.
Oh, I can imagine that the risk of road accidents is lower in the U.S.
As for other crime, the statistics paint their own picture.
Remember folks, especially in our current political times, the more locked down your devices are, the easier it's going to be to control you.
What you see, how you see it, when you see it ... those are all things you want to have control over.
Apple has shown they are perfectly happy to bend the knee here in the USA.
You really think having them fully dictate your locked down experience is going to end well?
What you see, how you see it, when you see it ... those are all things you want to have control over.
Apple has shown they are perfectly happy to bend the knee here in the USA.
You really think having them fully dictate your locked down experience is going to end well?
Android apps don't just have access to the phone's Wi-Fi history. I'm not sure what your argument is supposed to be.
The EU didn't require them to withhold their tech from EU users.