The U.S. Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday for monopolistic conduct. The complaint accuses Apple of shaping privacy and security practices in ways that financially benefit it.
In particular, where the Department of Justice refers to Apple's privacy and security legitimacy as an “elastic shield,” the following quote jumps out:
“Apple deploys its privacy and security rationale as an elastic shield that can be stretched and contracted to serve Apple's financial and business interests,” the paper said.
“Apple glosses over privacy, security, and consumer preferences to justify its anticompetitive behavior. In fact, Apple is the only company that can protect consumer privacy and security interests.” We spend billions of dollars on marketing and branding to promote this premise.”
That's not all. There are several other examples where the Department of Justice believes Apple is compromising privacy to degrade customer experiences.
App Store and app distribution
It also pointed out that Apple does not allow the creation and use of alternative app stores. However, government and business customers are allowed to install secure app stores, the complaint states. It also said that developers cannot offer a separate app store for children at this time. Particularly with the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by the EU, some of this has partially changed. (Some of the changes only apply to his EU region.)
The Department of Justice noted that Apple makes it easy for users to sideload apps on their Macs. Developers can relax restrictions on the platform to further distribute their apps, the Justice Department argues. The Justice Department also argued that Apple is restricting “super apps.” This could be a better alternative for the App Store to access services.
messaging
The Department of Justice also accused Apple of restricting third-party apps from receiving carrier-based messages (SMS). Apple marks SMS as “private” in its API documentation, making it inaccessible to other developers. Apple allows users to send text messages to anyone by entering a number in the “To” field in the Messages app, which is not possible in other Messages apps, the complaint says.
Plaintiffs also argued that Apple did not implement encryption protections when iPhone users sent messages to Android users, making the iPhone less secure.
Data sharing practices
The complaint also accuses Apple of using “vast amounts of personal and sensitive data” to distribute apps on its App Store. It also pointed out that the Cupertino-based company uses user data for advertising.
The lawsuit also says Apple entered into a deal with Google to make its services the default search engine in Safari, even though it knew there were better privacy-friendly alternatives. .
The Justice Department also argued that using a digital wallet would require users to share information with Apple, in addition to sharing information with banks and health care providers.
Essentially, the Justice Department argues that Apple's privacy and security efforts are presumptuous in nature, and that the company is choosing “alternative measures” to protect its monopoly.