For the first time I am glad the UK is not in the EU. This is massive government overreach that will impact on the privacy, security, and convenience of consumers. No doubt we'll see how this does in court.
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EU Approves Landmark Legislation to Regulate Apple and Other Big Tech Firms
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They're anti-privacy. See https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/messaging-and-chat-control/
And they dislike Apple because 1. they're successful and 2. not founded&funded by the EU.
This is good any way you slice it. And I worked to personally endorse and further some of these practices early in my career. It was ultimately self serving and this is better I’m happy for these changes being introduced.
Some of these rules go way overboard. No browsers are allowed pre installed on any phone? I have to install a browser? Ridiculous. If these rules are to come into law then Apple is going to have a lot of work to do redesigning their operating system and App Store to give a similar amount of security for those that still want it. Allow any voice assistant? Siri is baked into the whole OS I don't know how they are going to give full access to Alexa or Google without sacrificing security. A tough time for iOS ahead.
Oh Jeremy you’re so cocky, but that’s what turns me on about you
Let the legally wrangling begin. My prediction is that large swaths of this don't survive the courts without significant changes.
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Wrong. Flat wrong. Every thing demanded in this legislation treats technology like the flexible platform that it is. It liberates technology from the confines of a service structure and gives individuals as well as other companies more choice. This will foster competition and is completely antithetical from anything socialist.
It will kill the app store so the we will have no choice but to get apps from the Wild West. Plus these other things about sharing our information is just plain creepy. This is monumentally stupid legislation.
And that's at the heart of the conflict in Ukraine as well. Politicians & lobbyists couldn't care less about the people in Ukraine (whether they're Russian speaking in Donbass or Crimea, or Ukranian speaking in Lviv etc). We have to rise up against these bastards.
Finally. Excellent move by the EU to regulating some of the world's most powerful companies. This reminds me of the quote: "Our technology moves faster than our ethics".
It really seems that way.
Forcing Apple to open up iMessages and adopt some interoperability standards with hardware and protocols vs proprietary is fine, but this, comes off as "ask for an inch, take a mile".
Ah yes, the old paradox. By adding options, you take away the option to have fewer options. Does man truly have free will if he cannot freely choose to not have free will? This statement is false.
While you're enjoying your debate with Plato, maybe just don't use sideloading if you don't want to?
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May Cydia live on. This time, with no need for jailbreaking first. I welcome the ability to side load.
Maybe the EU should just get into the business of developing/defining product features for Apple full-time and this way Apple can save some R&D money and lower prices for customers. /s
Does anyone know if this new legislation prohibits Apple from requiring Google, Firefox, Opera and others to use Webkit as the rendering engine of their iOS Web Browsers?
iPhones would be as popular Symbian phones. The only thing the EU can do is create poverty and wars.
If Apple were to do that, they would have to shut down all services too on existing phones. Apple likely will not do that to their brand or bank account.
It reappropriates intellectual property from private control to public control. We can debate the merits of it and benefits to society, but it is definitely in socialism's wheelhouse.
..from a monumentally stupid organisation.
(Yes, I know Gorbachev didn't literally say this)
Except for that the possibility of sideloading and the other provisions of this directive:
1. eliminates the necessity that apps have at minimum a cursory review by an App Store;
2. are removed given they are found to be deleterious or dangerous;
3. reduces likelihood that apps will comply with handset makers requirements;
all because there is no obvious detection and enforcement system.
4. seems to eliminate the handset maker’s ability to provide a uniform, highly secure, predictable experience for the user;
5. Relegate Apple from ecosystem developer and enforcer to a glorified device producer.
The size of the penalties are shocking, by way of comparison, here are the EU’s penalties for other offenses like fraud and collusion:
1. The Directive seeks to harmonise the definitions and sanctions related to fraud offences, including corruption and bribery, affecting the ‘Union’s financial interests’ as defined.
The penalty for corporate offenders is a fine of not less than EUR20,000 and not more than EUR20 million.
2. The fines for this issue are more closely related to those for anti-competition law as seen in this fact sheet:
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As to the information sharing component, maybe it reads wrong, but it would seem to significantly erode privacy as well. (I’m fairly surprised they didn’t take a whack at end to end encryption, or demand a golden device decryption key as well.)
Just in the practical sense, if an App Store can’t set privacy standards and suspend an app for violating them, because the app can ignore them due to the possibility of sideloading, the apps will ignore the rules to increase their benefits with no fear of consequences.
Goodwill compliance, on the honor system, is not only enforcement against bad apps, it’s an actual incentive.
This is frightening.
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It would seem the iOS ecosystem is about to become the Wild West, because the governor is allowing the renegades to come into town, and is willing to fine the sheriff to keep him from keeping things safe, all in the hopes of having a couple more saloons on Main Street.
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