Apple has raised concerns over the interoperability requests made by Meta under the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA). According to Reuters, Meta has submitted 15 requests—more than any other company—seeking access to Apple’s software tools for its devices. Apple warned that fulfilling some of these requests could compromise user privacy and security.
The EU’s DMA, which came into effect last year, requires companies like Apple to allow competitors and app developers to work with their services. Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to 10 percent of the company’s global annual revenue.
“In many cases, Meta is seeking to alter functionality in a way that raises concerns about the privacy and security of users, and that appears to be completely unrelated to the actual use of Meta external devices, such as Meta smart glasses and Meta Quests,” Apple was quoted as saying to Reuters.
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Meta’s Quest VR headsets and other devices compete directly with Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Apple claims that if it were forced to comply with all of Meta’s requests, the consequences could be severe. “If Apple were to have to grant all of these requests, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could enable Meta to read on a user’s device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more,” Apple explained.
Apple’s complaint about Meta comes as the European Union has shared preliminary findings on proposed measures that Apple should implement to improve interoperability. These include providing app developers with better access to iOS components reserved for Apple’s exclusive use.
The Commission is now seeking input from third parties to assess whether these findings are enough to make Apple’s compliance process effective.