Tech giants Apple and Meta are at odds in Europe in a showdown bordering on the implementation of EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) over privacy and interoperability concerns.
The (DMA) is a competition law that forbids designated gatekeepers, such as Apple and Meta, from denying competitors access to core platform services. This includes Safari, the App Store, iOS, and iPadOS for Apple. However, iOS is the primary target of this dispute.
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Apple’s concerns about Meta’s requests
The iPhone manufacturer has declared its dislike since EU regulators are actively determining how the DMA interoperability rules should apply to Apple. However, its most recent attacks target Meta rather than the pan-EU regulation.
Apple disclosed on Wednesday that Meta has submitted more interoperability requests (15) than any other business, indicating that it is attempting to get extensive access that may be detrimental to customer security and privacy.
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Implications for regulation
Apple cautioned that if it granted all of the requests, Meta could “read on a user’s device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more” through its apps, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, and WhatsApp.
Meta countered the claims and accused Apple of fabricating privacy concerns that “have no basis in reality” in order to limit its access in the region.
