Apple pressures US lawmakers over dangers of ‘vertical’ apps allowed by Bill

Smartphone maker Apple has written to lawmakers to protest the assertion that its concerns about the dangers of transferring apps to phones have been overstated.

Sideloading, a method of downloading apps without using an app store, is one of the reforms that lawmakers hope will open up the app market.

Congress is currently considering a bill to control app stores run by Apple and Alphabet GoogleThis will require the company to authorize the transshipment. Apple argued that such behavior would be a security risk as it keeps tight control of apps in the store to keep users safe.

In a letter dated Thursday and sent to key members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Apple said it was aware that one critic, computer security expert Bruce Schneier, had called concerns Their concerns about circumventing the law were “unfounded.”

Apple goes on to argue that most malware doesn’t rely on technical tricks to gain access to a device, but instead tricks the user into downloading it. It argued that Apple’s review of apps included in the App Store “creates a high barrier against the most common scams used to distribute malware.”

Apple acknowledged that Schneier was correct in suggesting that state-sponsored attackers could bypass smartphone security controls but argued that these types of attacks were a “threat”. rare”.

“There is a lot of evidence that third-party app stores are a major malware vector on platforms that support such stores,” Apple said in the letter seen by Reuters.

It was sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, top Republican, Chuck Grassley, as well as Amy Klobuchar, chair of the antitrust subcommittee, along with top Republican, Mike Lee .

The committee voted in early February to pass the bill. The measure would also prohibit companies from requiring app providers to use their payment systems, and would prohibit them from penalizing apps that offer different prices or conditions through an app store. application or other payment system.

The biggest tech companies, including Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook and Amazon.com, has come under pressure before Congress over allegations it abused its excessive market power. A long list of bills aim to correct them, but none have yet become law.

© Thomson Reuters 2022