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peterspathyesterday at 8:01 PM9 repliesview on HN

It’s the DMA regulation that forces Apple to give the same access as they have to other AI chat apps.

Once it leaves the device Apple does not know what those other ai chat apps will do with the gathered data.

> Siri AI is private by design and deeply integrated across Apple’s platforms using on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud. However, under EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA, Apple would have to give any virtual assistant direct access to users’ private data — and the ability to directly control other installed applications — as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the essential protections necessary to keep users and their data safe.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/due-to-dma-siri-ai-de...


Replies

bloppeyesterday at 9:56 PM

Apple loves to play dumb about this stuff. The EU imposes a pretty straightforward regulation regarding equality of access. Apple seems to come up with all sorts of "solutions" to this "problem", and each one never amounts to true equality of access. They could easily just allow users to decide "Do you want to give this app unfettered access to all your device data, including other apps' data?". Let users decide. 99% of Apple users in the EU will probably click "no". I'm sure they'll make the user warnings scary enough to ward off anybody who doesn't know what's going on.

There are 2 potential outcomes: either the sky really does fall, and there's a meaningful uptick in bad things happening to iPhone users, in which Apple can easily point the finger at the EC and say "they made us do this". Apple looks like the good guys who put up a good fight for their users, but ultimately their hands were tied, and they'll probably get the revisions to EU law they're so desperately fighting for.

The other possibility is that the sky does not fall, and Apple looks both silly and malicious at the same time for ever having suggested that it would, which was clearly in bad faith.

Clearly, Apple cannot afford scenario #2, so I think they will probably never give their users the actual freedom that the MDA requires them to. They will just exit Europe entirely before allowing that to happen.

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progbitsyesterday at 9:06 PM

> EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA

It's not extreme interpretation, it's the intent.

Just say it would break your vendor lock-in.

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sterlindyesterday at 8:17 PM

so to translate:

- Apple has powerful capabilities in iOS to enable Siri AI.

- EU's DMA requires them to allow users to install third-party AI backends.

- Apple doesn't think parties other than themselves should be trusted with those iOS permissions.

I guess it'd be like if Apple allowed a first-party screen reader for iOS, so they refused to allow third-party screen readers.

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tom1337yesterday at 8:45 PM

> It’s the DMA regulation that forces Apple to give the same access as they have to other AI chat apps.

But why can Tesla ship Grok to their cars in the EU without any problems? Why aren't they required to let me choose between Grok, OpenAI etc or even a custom endpoint?

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aprilthird2021yesterday at 8:40 PM

> Once it leaves the device Apple does not know what those other ai chat apps will do with the gathered data.

It's the user's data. Not Apple's. And it should be the user's right to send it to whoever for whatever results, imo

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well_ackshuallyyesterday at 8:53 PM

> Once it leaves the device Apple does not know what those other ai chat apps will do with the gathered data.

Yeah, that's the whole fucking point.

troupoyesterday at 8:41 PM

Translation:

Since it's the user's device, not Apple's, EU correctly "interprets" this as the user has the right to do whatever they please, including installing third-party chat apps.

Apple are just bulshitters when it comes to actual users, and not their corporate definition of a user.

BTW, did you know that in Japan, and in Japan only, you can change the Siri shortcut button to start other voice assistants? https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/11/18/ios-26-2-third-party-voic...

Or that they wouldn't let you set default maps app outside of the EU: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/03/14/dma-compliance-default-ma...

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t0mas88yesterday at 8:18 PM

Sounds like Apple PR bullshit.

Unless Apple proves otherwise I'm more inclined to believe they're either 1. Using this to try and shape the DMA in their own interest (definitely not their users' interest) or 2. Doing something with the data that would not be allowed in the EU (also not in their users' interest at all) or both.

pjmlpyesterday at 8:08 PM

Because outsourcing to Google is so much trustworthy...

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