EU’s Vestager warns Apple against using privacy, security to limit competition

The European Union’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager on Friday warned Apple against using privacy and security concerns to fend off App Store competition, reasons CEO Tim Cook recently cited regarding the sideloading of apps from outside the Store.

Reuters:

Vestager last year proposed rules called the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that would force Apple to open up its lucrative App Store so that users can download apps from the internet or third-party app stores in a practice known as side-loading.

Cook, speaking at an event last month, said the proposal would destroy the security and privacy of iPhones.

Vestager said she shares Cook’s security concerns. “I think privacy and security is of paramount importance to everyone,” Vestager told Reuters in an interview.

“The important thing here is, of course, that it’s not a shield against competition, because I think customers will not give up neither security nor privacy if they use another app store or if they sideload,” she said.

MacDailyNews Take: The ditzy, illogical, out-of-her-depth Vestager then went on to say that allowing COVID-19 positive visitors into nursing homes by eliminating health screening protocols would be just hunky-dory.