Apple and Meta are warring in Europe over the balance between interoperability and privacy, Reuters reports.
The fight focuses on the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a competition regulation that requires designated gatekeepers (including Apple and Meta) not to restrict rivals’ access to so-called core platform services. In Apple’s case, this means: iOS, iPadOS, App Store, and Safari. But its concern here seems mainly focused on iOS.
The iPhone maker has made no bones about its distaste for the DMA, but its latest attacks take aim at Meta, rather than the pan-EU law itself — likely as EU enforcers are actively considering how the DMA interoperability requirements should apply to Apple.
On Wednesday, Apple revealed that Meta has made more interoperability requests (15) than any other company, suggesting it’s seeking far-reaching access that could be bad for users’ privacy and security.
Were it to grant all the requests, Apple warned that Meta’s apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, and WhatsApp) could allow Meta to “read on a user’s device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more.”
The social media giant hit back by accusing Apple of concocting privacy excuses “that have no basis in reality” to try to thwart access.