U.S. Justice Department Sues Apple Over Monopoly and Messaging Security

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), along with 16 other point out and district lawyers general, on Thursday accused Apple of illegally preserving a monopoly more than smartphones, thus undermining, between other folks, security and privacy of consumers when messaging non-iPhone consumers.

“Apple wraps alone in a cloak of privacy, security, and client preferences to justify its anticompetitive conduct,” the landmark antitrust lawsuit claimed. “Apple deploys privacy and security justifications as an elastic defend that can extend or deal to serve Apple’s money and business enterprise pursuits.”

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“Apple selectively compromises privacy and security interests when carrying out so is in Apple’s very own monetary desire – this sort of as degrading the security of textual content messages, giving governments and specific providers the opportunity to entry a lot more non-public and protected versions of application retailers, or accepting billions of bucks each 12 months for deciding on Google as its default research motor when more personal selections are offered.”

The sprawling complaint also alleged that iPhone consumers who concept a non-iPhone person by means of the Messages app are defaulted to the significantly less protected SMS structure (as opposed to iMessage) that lacks aid for encryption and delivers limited performance. On the other hand, iMessage is conclude-to-end encrypted (E2EE) and is even quantum-resistant.

It is really truly worth noting at this stage that iMessage is only out there on the iPhone and other Apple gadgets. Apple has frequently mentioned it has no plans of earning iMessage interoperable with Android, even stating that undertaking so will “will harm us much more than assistance us.”

Also, the 88-page lawsuit known as out the iPhone maker for blocking makes an attempt by 3rd-functions to carry protected cross-system messaging practical experience concerning iOS and Android system.

In December 2023, Beeper managed to reverse engineer the iMessage protocol and port the company to Android by means of a focused customer termed Beeper Mini. Apple, however, has shut down these endeavours, arguing that Beeper “posed significant dangers to consumer security and privacy, like the possible for metadata exposure and enabling undesirable messages, spam, and phishing attacks.”

These limits have a impressive network outcome, driving buyers to continue getting iPhones and much less probably to change to a competing product, the DoJ stated, including, “by rejecting alternatives that would permit for cross-platform encryption, Apple continues to make iPhone users’ much less secure than they could otherwise be.”

The enhancement comes as Apple is experiencing much more scrutiny than at any time to open up up its tightly-managed program ecosystem — the so-referred to as “walled back garden” — which regulators say locks in buyers and developers. Other major tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta have all dealt with related lawsuits in the latest many years.

Apple, in a surprise move late very last 12 months, introduced that it intends to increase support for Conversation Providers (RCS) – an upgraded edition of the SMS typical with contemporary instant messaging characteristics – to its Messages app. It also explained it will do the job with the GSMA associates to integrate encryption.

In response to the lawsuit, Cupertino reported it will “vigorously protect” itself and that the lawsuit “threatens who we are and the rules that set Apple products and solutions apart in fiercely aggressive marketplaces.” It also said that DoJ profitable the lawsuit would “established a dangerous precedent, empowering the governing administration to get a weighty hand in creating people’s technology.”

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