Categories: Technology

How little Threema is tearing the mighty tech company Apple apart

This counterattack works! The Swiss messaging service Threema explains in a blog post what is really wrong with Apple’s App Store.
Daniel Schurter

Threema has done it again. The Swiss software company that offers the messenger service Threema is taking on one of the richest companies in the world.

In a blog post published on Thursday, the makers of the app explain what is going wrong at Apple. And so much can already be revealed here: the ruthless message could also open the eyes of convinced Apple fans.

Why the excitement?

The background is the ‘Digital Markets Act’ (DMA), with which the European Union wants to restrict overwhelmingly large companies and promote competition. Since March 7, 2024, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta and Microsoft must adhere to stricter rules or risk hefty fines that could run into billions.

In the case of Apple, the European Commission wants to weaken the monopoly position of the App Store and allow apps to be installed from external sources.

But the smart people at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, foiled the plan. The American company still does not allow apps to be obtained directly from the source (i.e. from the developers) in Europe, as Threema criticizes.

The app store monopoly will remain de facto intact, and the US company will be able to continue to rake in billions of dollars in the future as a middleman “through terrible fees on the sale of third-party apps.”

“It is deeply insulting that Apple is using the security of iOS users as a justification for denying a real opening.”

What about data security and privacy?

Threema makes several arguments as to why Apple’s isolated app store does not provide more security and is even poor in terms of data protection:

  • Apple is a technology company and must guarantee security through technological means, “not through radical restrictions,” Threema said.
  • Apple’s desktop operating system (macOS) shows that this works. Apps have always been available there directly from the developers. And the safety problems are limited.
  • To ensure security when purchasing apps directly, a ‘notarization system’ has long been used under macOS, Threema says. This makes it possible to ensure that apps obtained directly from developers have undergone malware testing with Apple and have not been manipulated by third parties.
  • If an app is later found to be malicious, Apple can revoke its developer certificate at any time, making it impossible to open or install the app in question.
  • Swiss app developers claim that Apple’s App Store monopoly is also hostile to data protection. Anyone who downloads Threema for Android from the Threema store only has to place a certain amount of trust in Threema itself, and not in a third party. The downloaded app is signed by Threema, which means it can be verified beyond any doubt that it has not been tampered by anyone and is behaving as intended.
  • However, if you download an iOS app from the App Store, you will receive a file signed by Apple. iOS developers, on the other hand, would not have the option to sign their apps themselves. It cannot therefore be ruled out that Apple, for example, adapts certain apps or makes other adjustments in certain countries on behalf of the relevant government.

Financial disadvantages

  • Also regarding Payment methods Buying apps directly from developers offers advantages. For example, an app can be purchased with cash without collecting data from a financial institution. And it is not clear who buys how many licenses.
  • Anyone who buys Threema for iOS pays Apple and the company keeps 30 percent for itself. Because there are no anonymous payment methods available in the App Store, not only does Apple know who buys which app and when, but the financial institutions involved also have insight into the purchasing behavior of iOS users.
  • Apple’s restrictions also made it impossible for Threema users switch to another operating system (from Android to iOS or vice versa) without having to pay for the app again.
  • According to Threema, the deeper problem is that Apple creates preconditions for this Surveillance capitalism Financial support. “Developers who finance their apps through user data monetization do not have to pay fees or commissions.” For example, Meta can put WhatsApp on the App Store “without paying a cent”, while services based on a data protection-friendly business model have to pay heavily.
“The fact that Apple, completely in line with the spirit of the times, presents itself as an advocate for privacy seems not only unlikely, but downright cynical against this background.”

And the conclusion?

Forty years ago, during the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple aired a commercial that would go down in history. In the one-minute fragment, a fearless heroine frees society from technological totalitarianism, as the makers of Threema remind us.

“Today, Apple is no longer the fearless hero it was then. The company itself has become an iron dictator of technology, and instead of freedom and openness it now advocates restrictions and total control – like the regime in ‘1984’, citing security.”

Apple has now introduced “a bizarre model” in its app store, Threema criticizes. This involves “fees made out of thin air” and is designed to be as unattractive as possible to app developers and iOS users, as well as to potential alternative marketplace providers.

It’s time for Apple to return to its original ideals, stop patronizing its users and finally allow developers to distribute their own apps as they see fit.

Sources

  • threema.ch: Stop the App Store monopoly

Daniel Schurter

Source: Watson

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