Apple slammed by developers over 'anti-competitive' privacy changes to iOS 13
App makers claim that Apple's tightened privacy permissions won't apply to Apple apps
A group of developers have accused Apple of double standards over a clampdown on excessive default data-sharing by iOS apps.
As part of a tightening up of privacy policies in iOS 13, Apple is introducing more fine-grained privacy permissions, including stopping apps from asking users whether they will "Always Allow" an app to have access to location data on first installation.
With iOS 13, Apple is clamping down on this practice; when a user fires up an app, they'll see a new option to "Allow Once" when it comes to location sharing, alongside "Allow While Using App" and "Don't Allow" options. The "Always" option will still be available, but users will have to head to iOS Settings to manually enable it.
While this will certainly help iPhone and iPad users keep their data more private, the developers of iOS apps claim that such restrictions won't apply to Apple's own apps. In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, they accuse the company of hypocrisy.
"As Apple expands into additional services, some of which compete with developers like us, the need for a level playing field becomes ever more critical to allow the ecosystem to flourish," the developers wrote.
On a more self-serving level, the developers also argued that the changes might confuse less technically minded users, who will assume that the app is not working properly if they haven't established the right permissions correctly on set-up.
The letter, seen by The Information, adds: "We understand that there were certain developers, specifically messaging apps, that were using this as a backdoor to collect user data.
"While we agree loopholes like this should be closed, the current Apple plan to remove [access to the internet voice feature] will have unintended consequences: it will effectively shut down apps that have a valid need for real-time location."
The letter was signed by Tile CEO CJ Prober; Arity (Allstate) president Gary Hallgren; CEO of Life360, Chris Hullsan; CEO of dating app Happn, Didier Rappaport; CEO of Zenly (Snap), Antoine Martin; CEO of Zendrive, Jonathan Matus; and chief strategy officer of social networking app Twenty, Jared Allgood.
Before that, of course, Apple will need to re-apply a patch introduced in iOS 12.3 that accidentally became unpatched in iOS 12.4. That patch was intended to fix a security flaw enabling attackers to potentially 'jailbreak' an iOS device.