U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Another Antitrust Bill That Would Allow Sideloading on iPhone

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today approved the bipartisan Open App Markets Act, an antitrust bill that would allow for alternative app stores and alternative in-app payment systems on the iPhone. The bill will now head to the Senate floor for a vote.

iOS App Store General Feature JoeBlue
Apple had urged the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the bill, arguing that sideloading would pose privacy and security risks for customers.

"Sideloading would enable bad actors to evade Apple's privacy and security protections by distributing apps without critical privacy and security checks. These provisions would allow malware, scams and data-exploitation to proliferate," said Apple's government affairs head Tim Powderly in a letter sent to the Committee earlier this week.

Last month, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, another antitrust bill that would allow sideloading and which Apple spoke out against, citing the same privacy and security risks.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

10 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Thursday October 31, 2024 9:42 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well. ...
M4 Pro on Blue

M4 Pro Chip Benchmark Results Reveal an Extremely Impressive Performance Feat

Thursday October 31, 2024 7:06 pm PDT by
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. Here is a comparison of the results: Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results) Mac Studio...
Apple iPhone SE 4 5G Modem 1

iPhone SE 4 First to Get Apple-Designed 5G Modem, iPhone 17 Pro to Add Custom Wi-Fi 7 Chip

Friday November 1, 2024 4:04 am PDT by
The iPhone SE 4 that's set to come out early next year is expected to debut Apple's first in-house 5G modem, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain. In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said Apple is expected to roll out its custom-made 5G modem starting with the next-generation...
best early black friday deals

The Best Early Black Friday Apple Deals

Friday November 1, 2024 8:21 am PDT by
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 29 in 2024. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment,...
M3 Pro Max vs M4 Pro Max Feature

Here's How Much Faster M4 Pro/Max Are for Graphics vs. M3 Pro/Max

Friday November 1, 2024 8:04 am PDT by
Apple's new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are impressively fast in terms of CPU performance, topping the M2 Ultra, but what about graphics performance? The first Geekbench 6 results for GPU performance are now available for the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and the Metal scores reveal some impressive year-over-year gains. Based on the Metal scores that are available so far, the M4 Pro and M4 Max are up to...
imac video apple feature

What to Expect From Apple This November

Friday November 1, 2024 9:40 am PDT by
After a busy October in which Apple announced new Macs and Apple Intelligence launched, the calendar has now turned to November. Below, we outline what to expect from Apple this month as the slower-but-still-busy holiday season approaches. After seeding the first betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 with additional Apple Intelligence features last month, Apple will likely...
pixelmator

Apple Acquires Photo Editing App Maker Pixelmator

Friday November 1, 2024 8:41 am PDT by
Apple has reached an agreement to acquire Pixelmator, the company behind popular photo and image editing apps Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, according to an announcement made by the Pixelmator team on Friday. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Pixelmator has developed a suite of well-regarded creative tools that compete with...

Top Rated Comments

Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
36 months ago
Just give users an option to download from the App Store-only or anywhere, like on a Mac. Put up about five warning screens (maybe seven for good luck). Done!
Score: 58 Votes (Like | Disagree)
antiprotest Avatar
36 months ago
If this goes through the next committee will be about how Apple fails to protect users from malware due to the side loading.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
36 months ago
This is just sad. Third-party app stores sound like a great way to get the malware. Say goodbye to privacy and security. :(

Our privacy will be on the line and we will be exposed to the malware. I really hope Apple will find a way to stop this. The government should really stay out of this.
Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cdarlington1 Avatar
36 months ago
They do allow sideloading on the mac. They don't want it on the iPhone or iPad. It's their decision. Hopefully this goes nowhere.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrat93 Avatar
36 months ago

They do allow sideloading on the mac. They don't want it on the iPhone or iPad. It's their decision. Hopefully this goes nowhere.
when did it become “sideloading” on the Mac? when the Mac App Store came out, was everything else “sideloading”?
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dguisinger Avatar
36 months ago

This is going to force Apple to stop investing heavily into the App Store. They should tell these congressmen the unvarnished truth. If they decrease profitability of their platform they will stop investing in it or start charging all developers for access whether their app is free or not based on the number of Apple API calls per month. Many of the small developers will close and the Epics and Microsofts of the world will be able to charge what they want because they won’t have to compete with the little guys anymore. It’ll be like the old days for them. Just what they want.
They are investing heavily into the App store now? What innovations has it had in the last 10 years? Better yet, have they improved their working relationships with developers who got a run around on why they were getting rejected? Last I heard, developers are still getting rejected for things as stupid as someone at Apple typed in the wrong username/password for the test account the developer gave them, and instead of trying again, they reject the app update. Or how about all the fake scam apps that look like the originals they are trying to dupe people into subscribing for? We know they exist, there are stories about them almost every week. Innovation wise, the App Store in my opinion has been a failure. They just milk the gullible for all they are worth before these laws get implemented.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)