Jan W. Illens

@janwillens
11 Followers
15 Following
205 Posts
Enjoys posting about legal stuff. 📚 | Big fan of taking pictures 📸 | He/Him/His 🤠 | Active in LGBTQ+ community 🏳️‍🌈
Ambassador at EUorigin 🇪🇺
POV: Europeans watching the @EUCommission
"care" about our privacy. #ChatControl #DigitalMarketsAct

It happened.

Read the #vaicatx announcement here: https://www.vaic.at/announcing-euorigin-for-vision-pro/

My expectations for the appeal process are as follows:

I believe Apple has a strong case for the appeal. It’s unreasonable to have a policy that prevents Apple from informing its users about potential risks, especially when it’s being presented as a means of competition.

Anyone is free to develop software and target any audience as long as they adhere to the platform’s owners’ rules of engagement. Maintaining a platform can be extremely costly, so businesses that profit from it must fully comply with industry standards.

So, what about the App Store fees associated with external links?

Putting your app on the App Store is a business decision. It involves targeting an audience on Apple’s intellectual property. Anyone can calculate the costs and determine if it’s financially viable to list their app on the Store.

Consumers on the Apple platform have certain expectations, particularly regarding protections, as I mentioned earlier. Blocking Apple from effectively warning its users about the potential risks associated with disabling these protections would allow dark pattern-driven schemes to flourish.

Again, if most users don’t read privacy policies before handing over their data, imagine how few will scrutinize a random third-party link before entering credit card details.

Apple wants to properly warn its users about leaving the App Store environment to complete a purchase, for instance. This isn’t a “Scare Screen,” but rather a proportionate educational tool to ensure informed consent from the user.
So just as users routinely “consent” to privacy-invasive data collection without fully understanding what they’re agreeing to, they’re also vulnerable when asked to provide payment information or tap third-party links outside of trusted environments like the App Store.

“Consent to the use of personal data has not only a legal, but also a cognitive dimension… Data consumers may consent to the use of their personal data, without being cognitively aware and sufficiently informed of the nature and extent of that use by data providers. Data providers then exploit this cognitive asymmetry for their economic benefit, at the expense of consumers’ privacy.”

https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/08/should-you-know--or-care--how-your-data-is-being-used-before-you

Should you know (or care) how your data is being used before you consent?

UNSW Sites
For example, a study on giving personal data away:
"Fully 97% of Americans say they are ever asked to approve privacy policies, yet only about one-in-five adults overall say they always (9%) or often (13%) read a company’s privacy policy before agreeing to it."
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/
Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information

Majorities of U.S. adults believe their personal data is less secure now, that data collection poses more risks than benefits, and that it is not possible to go through daily life without being tracked.

Pew Research Center