alt Hacker NewsIn the EU case, Apple weaponizes people's ignorance about regulation. Apple pretends that the features everyone else has been shipping left and right somehow need extra paperwork and special approvals, because (…checks notes…) pro-privacy EU laws let zero-privacy competitors sail through, but block implementations that offer more privacy!?
What's really happening is Apple unilaterally withholding features while making vague noises about regulation as bargaining chips in talks with EU regulators where Apple is trying to weasel out of punishment for breaking anti-monopoly laws.
Replies
There is no privacy concern here. Probably monopoly concerns.
Personally I would consider withholding products or features from the EU, not because I want to "steal everyone's data", but because they're a pain in the neck for a small business to comply with.
Personally I think EU policies single handedly ruined the web. Every time I'm shown a cookie policy I am a tiny bit more angry at the EU. If I were Apple I would drag my feet way more. They probably only do it because shareholders would force them to go after the Euros if they didn't try.
This isn't really true. AI laws in the EU mandate that Apple give full access to everythign on the device to third parties.
It's legit to be skeptical on the privacy front, but giving deepseek access to my entire phone. Or the TrumpAI at some point in a dystopian future seems... not great.
I’m sorry, but the DMA is mandating Cambridge Analytica-type access to data. That whole scandal was people on Facebook granting a third party access to all the data they had access to. And Cambridge Analytica lied about how they were going to use it.
Facebook got roasted for this, but now the EU wants the same open data policy from every big tech company.
It IS regulatory. The EU wants “anything Apple AI can do you have to let other AI providers do with equal access”.
Which is fucking stupid, and Apple will never, ever throw open the gates to something so dangerously braindead. Their entire reputation depends on it.
And China is kinda self-explanatory.
I don't think it's unfair to say that the EU scrutinizes Apple (and a few other megacorps) a great deal more than most other companies. Some zero-privacy competitors might be sailing by right now simply because they aren't already caught up in the EU's red tape. Which isn't to say Apple doesn't also wield that red tape as their own bargaining chip, like you said.