This is the framing Apple wants to sell for their decision to withhold features from the EU, and blogs are parroting it.

In reality, Apple is purposefully withholding these features from the EU, either because Apple are being retaliatory against EU customers for the existence of the DMA, or because Apple (with full knowledge of the DMA for years) refused to build these features in compliance with it.

Apple chose to harm their products in the EU. The DMA didn't. This framing is marketing.

I genuinely don't understand what Apple's trying to do with this pissing match with the EU. If the goal is to drum up public opinion against the DMA, Apple's a "multiple trillions of dollars" company, they aren't the scrappy upstart making quirky iPod ads in the 2000s, they ARE the institutional player. Nobody has sympathy for "uwu we are being bullied by regulators" from the mouths of the megacorp.

@stevestreza but we should have sympathy for this commission that tells us we are too stupid to choose for ourselves what we want?

Apple’s closed system has always been proven lightyears ahead when it comes down to privacy and security.

In the meanwhile in the EU we are still clicking “reject cookies” on every website whilst cookies are still being installed. 🙄

@SebastienK @stevestreza this is another lie you’ve been fed. There is no GDPR cookie banner law.

https://www.amazingcto.com/cookie-banners-are-not-needed/
https://www.bitecode.dev/p/there-is-no-eu-cookie-banner-law

Similarly, Apple’s promise of superior security is nonsense. Android zero days sell in black markets for similar prices, if not higher, *despite* being a more open platform. On Android, users can make informed choices in sacrificing security for freedom — the default platform is highly secure

Dear Paul Graham, there is no cookie banner law

On why you keep seeing these cookie banners

Amazing CTO

@SebastienK @stevestreza The simple reality is that Apple has found touting privacy to be an effective marketing strategy, but their actions consistently demonstrate regard for nobody other than shareholders, as is their legal responsibility as a public company.

This is why government regulation is necessary.

This EU smear campaign is obviously a carefully crafted lie to this end, and Americans are buying it.

@eb stop this drupif EU v
Commission propaganda . The EU does not care about our privacy. The only thing it cares about is protecting EU monopoly tech like Spotify.
I’m not American and I don’t buy this stupid EU narrative.
@stevestreza

@SebastienK @stevestreza
> the only thing it cares about is protecting EU monopoly tech

It’s crazy to accuse the EU of wrongdoing because it doesn’t regulate monopolies *while* complaining that it is regulating monopolies. Your double standard is just as bad as the one you accuse the EU of.

Actually, it’s arguably worse, because if the EU is playing favorites as you say, well god forbid they protect the interests of… their own economy.

@eb that is exactly what I’m saying. I’m tired of this corrupt behaviour with my tax money. I was always a big fan of our EU but they have lost me completely #NotMyEU @stevestreza

@SebastienK @stevestreza You deleted your replies, or blocked me, but ok, but I can provide sources to substantiate my nonsense:

https://www.crowdfense.com/exploit-acquisition-program/
https://boehs.org/node/private-apis
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1039938
https://archive.is/wW8AD
Apple refused to support RCS, a protocol that unarguably allows more privacy to users than SMS, but would challenge their monopoly
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/05/why-your-wi-fi-router-doubles-as-an-apple-airtag/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html

It goes on and on. Do *you* have evidence?

Exploit Acquisition Program - Crowdfense

How to sell your zero-day (0day) exploit? If you have what it takes, report your vulnerability and reclaim the highest payouts ever!

Crowdfense
@eb @SebastienK @stevestreza not really sure how RCS would allow more privacy, but iMessage was explicitly not regulated by the EU because not enough people use it, so that’s not that strong an argument.
I would say that the work Apple has done to ensure privacy from Advertising companies is worth some credit to them compared to android, even if your data might not be fully private from Apple.

@SMillerNL @SebastienK @stevestreza you missed the "than SMS" in the message. RCS is more private than SMS. On a basic spec level, the security improvements of SMS are marginal over SMS (though non-zero), granted, but RCS also has the capacity to be extended for E2E.

Also, I wasn't trying to assert that Apple is somehow more evil than google, just that they aren't the good guys in any sense of the word, despite people tending to be much softer towards them (imo this makes them dangerous tbh).

@SMillerNL @SebastienK @stevestreza some more nuanced thoughts:

"but iMessage was explicitly not regulated by the EU"

imo, converse to Gruber's opinion, the reversal was an unexpected win for apple, after they had already announced RCS they decided they couldn't walk back. Also, imo it helped china apply more pressure asw, but the real hesitancy was always in US markets where iMessage *is* a monopoly, and where RCS support hurts said monopoly

2/3

@SMillerNL @SebastienK @stevestreza in regards to the "credit to apple" point, I'm hesitant give them a cookie.

To the extent we are aware of, Google is the likely the worser privacy (*not* security) evil. Still, there's a lot that we *don't* know. They make it immensely difficult to monitor any part of the network stack (e.g. some apple connections bypass VPNs). On android, for many reasons, its much easier to audit, and hence trust we get the real picture.

https://protonvpn.com/blog/apple-ios-vulnerability-disclosure/

Apple iOS vulnerability causes connections to bypass VPN | Proton VPN

We discovered a security vulnerability in Apple’s iOS that causes connections to remain unencrypted even after connecting to VPN.

Proton VPN
@eb @SebastienK @stevestreza the RCS standard might be extended with E2EE, but for now it’s really only a Google extension for that so it’s not really broadly interoperable AFAIK
@SMillerNL @SebastienK @stevestreza right, the *spec* doesn’t include E2E, but the *spec* supports extensions. Google didn’t like.. make a new spec, as is needed with SMS. And google has demonstrated willingness to support standardizing E2E. And the baseline spec *is* still more private than SMS
@eb that’s not a reality that is your opinion based on nonsense @stevestreza
@SebastienK @stevestreza they put those banners up for US customers as well. Ask me how I know. And it has nothing to do with the law, it's a choice.
@gzt only in one state in the US. How do I know? Just run a website 🙄@stevestreza
@SebastienK @stevestreza then it's kind of weird that as an American user who doesn't live in that state, I get those banners anyway at most of those sites. Cool that some sites don't do that.
@gzt you use a VPN? @stevestreza
@SebastienK @stevestreza only on my work computer, and that one should be going through South Carolina. But it could be claiming to be in San Jose or something.
choose for ourselves
That's the same argument people made to kill universal health care in the USA. All about choice, innit? Thank goodness I get to choose how Apple gets to bleed me dry. Thank goodness I get to choose which private company gets to deny me health care. Thank goodness I get to struggle to choose which shitty product on the shelves, when all I want is 1 good choice. Slave not happy with their current master? They can choose a different master! It's a free country!

CC: @[email protected]
@cy Yep! “Choice” is what the EU is promising with the DMA and in the meanwhile killing off privacy and security for all EU citizens. 🤷🏽‍♂️
@stevestreza
Well, that sucks. I don't know much about the DMA, only that having (ugh) Apple as a choice really doesn't help anyone.

CC: @[email protected]
@cy yeah let’s have no choice. 🙄 @stevestreza
No choice, bad choices, same thing really. How about a good choice?

CC: @[email protected]
@cy
There was a good choice. Maybe not your choice but don’t dictate what I should choose!
@stevestreza
I don't care about your choice, or my choice. Only idiots care about choice. What matters is satisfaction. If I could force you to choose something that really is "lightyears ahead when it comes down to privacy and security" would you really complain?
@cy if you could offer me an alternative to Apple I would not complain but you don’t have an alternative or a clue 🙄
Use rsync and ssh if you want to mirror files between devices.
@cy that’s all you can come up with? That is not sufficient. You don’t have the answers! You know shit!
Oh no, my genius idea is shit. And amazingly enough, you really do have the choice to use rsync and ssh, yet you choose not to. But does it matter? What matters is if there's a good solution, not more choices.

@cy “that's the same argument people made to kill universal healthcare care”

Please be consistent in your thoughts