Apple Privacy Chief: North Dakota Bill ‘Threatens To Destroy iPhone As You Know It’

The North Dakota Senate this week introduced a new bill that would prevent Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their respective app stores and payment methods, paving the way for other options for app store, reports The Bismarck Tribune (via The edge).

According to Senator Kyle Davison, who introduced Senate Bill 2333 yesterday, the bill seeks to “level the playing field” for North Dakota app developers and protect customers from “monopoly fees devastating imposed by big tech companies, ”which refers to cutting what Apple and Google are taking from developers.

Specifically, the bill would prevent Apple from requiring a developer to use a digital application distribution platform as the exclusive mode of distributing a digital product, and it would prevent the company from requiring developers that they use in-app purchases as an exclusive method of accepting payment. of a user. There is also wording preventing Apple from retaliating against developers who choose other distribution and payment methods.

Erik Neuenschwander, Apple’s chief privacy engineer, spoke out against the bill, saying it “threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it” by demanding changes that “would undermine the privacy, security, safety and performance “of the” iPhone “.

Neuenschwander said Apple is “working hard” to keep bad apps out of the App Store, and the North Dakota bill “would force us to let them in.”

Apple does not allow installation of apps on iOS devices outside of the “App Store” and no other App Store options are available. Apple is reviewing all apps made available to its customers for download, which wouldn’t happen with a third-party app store option.

Apple also does not allow app developers to accept payments through methods other than in-app purchase except in certain situations, a policy that led to Apple’s legal fight with Epic Games. . ‌Epic Games‌ added another payment method to Fortnite last year, which led to the app being banned from the “App Store”.

Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who was also involved in a legal battle with Apple over the “HEY” email app last year, testified in favor of SB 2333 and said it gave him the hope that “technological monopolies will not rule the world forever. “

In 2020, Apple faced a US antitrust investigation into its “ App Store ” fees and policies, which resulted in a 450-page report calling for new antitrust laws focused on promoting competition. fairness in digital markets, strengthening merger and monopolization laws and restoring vigorous oversight. and antitrust law enforcement.

No federal legislation has yet been introduced and the North Dakota Senate committee has not made a decision on the bill. Senator Jerry Klein said there was “still some thinking to be done” with respect to the bill.