#app-store-regulation

#app-store-regulation

Unlike showing ID only for age-restricted items in a physical store (like alcohol), the bill would require age checks for everyone right when entering the app store, before any specific app or content is selected. Heightened risks from handling sensitive personal data online: Users would submit identifiers such as driver's licenses or facial scans to multiple parties that might store this information, unlike a quick, temporary check in the real world where the ID is simply viewed and returned.

Apple faces fierce competition in every market where we operate, and we work tirelessly to create the best products, services and user experience. The commitments announced today allow Apple to continue advancing important privacy and security innovations for users and great opportunities for developers. We appreciate the positive and ongoing dialogue with UK officials.

Last year the UK declared that Apple and Google were a duopoly with " strategic market status" in the mobile platforms market, making them subject to special regulations. However, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will not regulate Google and Apple's app stores like the EU has done. Rather, government plans to enforce its own digital markets rules in a "pragmatic" way by accepting "commitments" from Apple and Google in areas like app rankings, the CMA announced.

Apple warned the law's requirements "open new avenues for malware, fraud and scams, and privacy and security risks." Cupertino has complied anyway, and said it introduced "Notarization for iOS apps, an authorization process for app marketplaces, and requirements that help protect children from inappropriate content and scams." Apple also dropped its App Store commissions to 10 percent "for the vast majority of developers."