This week, the United States’ Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to have discussions regarding the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open App Markets Act. The discussions stem from recent probes into antitrust behaviour from big tech firms, specifically as it pertains to marketplaces and control thereof.
Unsurprisingly, two of the biggest firms in opposition to these antitrust bills are Apple and Google, both of which have penned open letters highlighting their concerns over privacy and security that could potentially be threatened.
In recent months we have seen the app marketplaces for both firms become the battleground for antitrust, with the ability for developers to use any payment platform of their choice being a particular sticking point, with Apple specifically having to acquiesce to demands.
According to Apple, these bills would ostensibly “force” the company to allow unauthorised activity in its marketplace, while also opening up its customers to the threat of cybercrime.
“The bills put consumers in harm’s way because of the real risk of privacy and security breaches,” explained the company’s senior director for government affairs, Timothy Powerdly in a letter sent to CNBC.
“If Apple is forced to enable sideloading, millions of Americans will likely suffer malware attacks on their phones that would otherwise have been stopped,” he added.
Alphabet’s (which owns Google) Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer, shared similar thoughts in a blog post.
“Legislation being debated in the House and Senate could break these and other popular online services, making them less helpful and less secure, and damaging American competitiveness. We’re deeply concerned about these unintended consequences,” he wrote.
“Antitrust law is about ensuring that companies are competing hard to build their best products for consumers. But the vague and sweeping provisions of these bills would break popular products that help consumers and small businesses, only to benefit a handful of companies who brought their pleas to Washington,” added Walker.
While both big tech execs have valid points, the Senate Judiciary Committee has been quick to quash the claims.
“The bill does not force Apple to allow unscreened apps onto Apple devices,” a spokesperson for Senator Amy Klobuchar (who sits on the Committee) noted in a statement.
“All of Apple’s arguments about ‘sideloading’ really amount to a desperate attempt to preserve their app store monopoly, which they use to charge huge fees from businesses they are competing against. Let’s be clear – this multi-trillion dollar company is more that capable of protecting privacy and security while still giving consumers greater choice by allowing competition. The legislation includes strong provisions that all platforms to safeguard user privacy and security,” they added.
Discussions are set for tomorrow by the Senate at the time of writing, but as we have seen in previous occasions when big tech and government have gotten in the same room, a fundamental lack of understanding of technology has hampered any tangible changes.
Hopefully this will not be the case this time around.
[Image – Photo by Harold Mendoza on Unsplash]
