Is Tim Apple Worried: How Can Regulators Ignore What Apple Wants?

April 13, 2022

I know Apple and Tim are important. Fresh from a right to repair campaign and the cute move to make upgrades to the new and improved Mac Mini Studio, Tim Apple faces a poor report card. Tim Apple has failed Apple’s employee-acolyte examination. “Apple’s Tim Cook Warns of Unintended Consequences in App Store Antitrust Legislation” reports:

Apple CEO Tim Cook blasted regulatory proposals by Congress and in the European Union on Tuesday, arguing that legislation aimed at cracking open the company’s app store will hurt user security and privacy.

Are we talking Apple stalker gizmos? (This is my synonym for the Apple AirTag. Please, see “Apple AirTags Allegedly Being Used by Stalkers: Viral Twitter Thread.”

Nope. The idea that elected officials want to permit sideloading.

Let me translate: If an iPhone user wants to load an application without going through Apple’s online store, bad things will happen. Remember the good, old days of buying software in a box and installing it. That’s sideloading in my book.

Are we talking Apple compliance with rules in China and Russia (pre-Ukraine, of course)?

The write up continues:

Former top national security officials have sided with Apple, saying that requiring iPhones to accept apps that may lack sufficient security protections could ultimately endanger the country.

Are we talking Apple’s often decidedly un-snappy response to legitimate government requests? Nope. We are talking national security and the unnamed terrible things waiting to roar down the on ramp of the information highway to deliver (my goodness!) unintended consequences.

Several observations:

Tense much, Mr. Apple?
Are we talking about AirTags?
Concerned about losing a revenue stream?
Worried about regulation after decades of riding horses hard in the digital Wild West?

I would prefer more action related to the personnel issues which are smoking on the burning brush at the spaceship.

Stephen E Arnold, April 13, 2022

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Government, Legal matters, News

Comments

Comments are closed.

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.