[19341] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Script of my radio report yesterday on regulatory
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Tue Sep 24 12:16:23 2024
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2024 09:06:56 -0700
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Script of my radio report yesterday on regulatory efforts aimed at Apple
and Google
This is the script of my national network radio report yesterday
regarding some regulatory efforts aimed at Apple and Google. As
always, there may have been some very minor wording changes from this
script as I presented this report live on air.
- - -
So what this really is all about is how governments, not just in
Europe but around the world, are moving to regulate the two large
technical ecosystems of Apple and Google, and while some of their
efforts make sense there are some other aspects that seem more
problematic from a consumer standpoint.
It's important to understand that Apple with their iOS devices like
the iPhone and iPad, and Google with their Android devices have taken
very different paths from the very beginning. Apple has always kept
their ecosystem very much closed. They are the only manufacturer of
their hardware, their hardware (even cables) have pretty much always
been premium priced, they've routinely kept their hardware locked down
from apps not distributed through the Apple app store, and they've
resisted some key industry standards, for example USB-C connectors
(until the EU recently forced them to fully embrace USB-C).
Google's Android has always been very different. While there are
Google-made Android devices like the Pixel, in contrast to Apple there
are a wide range of other competing manufacturers of Android devices,
Samsung and Lenovo just to name two among the many. And while Google
like Apple has wanted users to download apps through their individual
app stores (Google calls theirs the Play Store) and to purchase any
non-free apps, etc. through those stores, Google (unlike Apple) has
always permitted "sideloading" of unofficial apps from other sources,
over time with an increasing number of "hoops" to jump through to
enable this, mainly because sideloading unofficial apps can be risky.
Now one of the things the EU has been doing is moving to force both
Apple and Google to make it much easier to load apps from other than
the firms' respective app stores. And the firms have been resisting
this for two reasons. One is that for paid apps, etc. when users pay,
the firms typically get a revenue cut through their stores and they'd
prefer to keep that.
But the other reason is actually a quite genuine concern about how
making it too easy to install apps from third party sources could
create a tidal wave of phones and tablets and more being infected with
malware apps that could do a lot of damage to users. And again this is
not unrealistic. Apple and Google both have approval systems for their
official store apps to try keep malware out of the ecosystems, and
Google for example has a system that scans devices for potential
malware apps even if they were sideloaded.
But opening up third party app stores would logically seem to mean a
vast increase in the number of apps being installed from sources that
neither Apple nor Google control, but for which Google and Apple will
likely be blamed by users if third party software turns out to be
malware.
And now the EU is pushing Apple further in this direction regarding
operating system and hardware interoperability with devices like smart
watches and headphones and more. And sure, having better
interoperability sounds like a great idea. But we do have to be
concerned about any possible unintended negative consequences of
regulatory pushes that involve very complex technologies and
ecosystems that have developed over many years.
This is especially true in today's environment where there is so much
malware that does so much damage to so many consumers every day. It's
understandable why Apple and Google and other Big Tech firms are
concerned about changes that run a significant risk of increasing
malware problems for their billions of users.
So these kinds of possible consequences are something that we really
do need to keep in mind when we hear about regulatory efforts aimed at
high tech. Sometimes they'll work out well. But we should never forget
the old adage about being careful what one wishes for, because what
you get may end up being very different from what you expected or
wanted.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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