Apple CEO Tim Cook warns against antitrust legislation at privacy conference

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins the Live show to discuss Tim Cook’s speech warning against antitrust legislation at IAPP’s 2022 Global Privacy Summit.

Video Transcript

EMILY MCCORMICK: But switching gears here, all eyes are also on Apple. CEO, Tim Cook, spoke today at a key privacy conference. Yahoo Finance's own tech editor, Dan Howley, has more on this. And Dan, what were some of the big takeaways?

DAN HOWLEY: That's right, Emily. Tim Cook spoke basically about how the iPhone and Apple stand to lose-- as well as Apple and iPhone users-- stand to lose when politicians push forward their antitrust legislation that they're working on right now. Essentially, this is a privacy conference. And Tim Cook went up and said, yeah, but what about that antitrust stuff that's going on?

And really, what his argument was that, the antitrust laws that are being considered in Congress would make people less safe by opening up Apple's App Store, and the ability for consumers to install apps outside of that store. Now, the antitrust legislation that's being considered right now really has to do with Apple's ability to charge app developers the 30 to 15% fee on the sale of all of their apps.

What he kind of equated it to in this speech was, opening up the stores, and making them more available to abuse. And really, what he's discussing is the idea of side-loading, which is the ability for people to install apps outside of just the App Store, being able to go to a website and install an app.

And you can do that on certain devices right now, Android, for instance, although, there is a pretty scary looking warning when you do that. But you can also do that on a Mac laptop, or a Mac desktop, or a Windows computer. It's only on the iPhone that we really see this kind of block for people to do that.

And Tim Cook basically saying at this privacy conference that it's an important means to protect peoples' privacy. But you know, it also happens to pocket them that 30 to 15% when app developers are forced to use that App Store. So really, you know, he's talking about two separate things, but trying to put them together.

And that yes, Apple does offer superior security to the likes of Android and Windows. But part of that has to do with the fact that Android and Windows are the most popular operating systems in the world. People tend to get their updates on iOS devices much faster, which patch holes that you know, malicious apps could be abusing to then steal people's data and target individuals.

And the antitrust issue is just kind of an aside. And obviously, this has been part of Apple's strategy going forward. They've been doing this since the epic trial, basically saying that if the antitrust laws are put into effect, and Apple has to allow people to install apps on their iPhones outside of the App Store, then it will open those phones, and those devices up to security problems. So it really is a way for Apple to kind of say, look, you're hurting consumers by putting these antitrust laws forward, not hurting Apple's ability to collect that 30 or 15% fee. But it really just seems like it's hurting Apple's ability to collect that fee.

EMILY MCCORMICK: And Dan, broadening this out beyond even Apple, how would some of these antitrust proposals-- how would these affect some of the other big tech companies as well?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, it would have the same impact on Google, or Google's parent, Alphabet. Really, you know, I mean, both companies essentially do the exact same thing with their app stores. They prevent people for-- or largely prevent people I should say-- Google again, does allow you to install apps from third party sources. But you have to enable that in the Settings menu. And again, there's that scary notification saying that you installing apps from unknown sources could have X, Y, Z impact on your device, or you could download malicious software.

So it kind of attempts to push people away from doing that. And both stores then have that 30 to 15% fee that they collect. So it would impact both of them equally. The bigger question is, though, how could this impact other things, like game consoles for instance? You know, I could purchase things on a game console. Does that mean that I have to then only purchase them on the console? Or can I open that up to a larger spot?

Yes, there are physical games that I could buy. But when it comes to downloading, which we're seeing becoming more prevalent, it really is know the only way to download games is through these different game stores. So does that then open up other sources to these kinds of issues? And that's something that I think we're going to have to see when this legislation is really hammered out.

But I think as far as Apple and Google go, it's the exact same outcome for both of them. They would have to open up their app stores to allow people to install apps any way they want. And that means circumventing those fees.

EMILY MCCORMICK: All right, Yahoo Finance's Tech Editor, Dan Howley. Thank you so much for that report.