The U.S. Department of Justice announces a new antitrust investigation against Apple
Apple announced new privacy measures at the WWDC 2019 Developers Conference, “Sign in With Apple”. This login mode can hide the user’s real email address.
In this way, even if a website or application tries to harass users through registered accounts, it is useless. Users can easily filter such emails to avoid harassment of their real mailboxes.
At the same time, Apple also requires that all applications that support third-party login must support Sign in With Apple, and developers must also place the “Sign in With Apple” button above the shortcut login.
For example, if the app already supports Google or Facebook quick login, it must support Sign in With Apple and place the “Sign in With Apple” login button above Google login and Facebook login.
Although Apple’s starting point is to protect user privacy, the mandatory use of the “Sign in With Apple” option is obviously troublesome for developers.
Therefore, some developers directly complained to the US Department of Justice on this issue and got the attention of the US Department of Justice. At present, the US Department of Justice has announced a formal investigation.
The US Department of Justice believes that no matter what Apple’s starting point is, it cannot use its market advantage to force developers to do what, which has obviously triggered antitrust issues.
In particular, the U.S. Department of Justice is currently conducting an antitrust investigation on Apple’s in-app purchases. The mandatory login may be merged into the relevant investigation.
It is not yet clear about the progress of the US Department of Justice’s investigation, but Apple said that this is a private security service and that there is no violation based on the interests of users.
Via: The Information