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The story of DMA compliance in Europe seems to have no end. A recent example of this can be seen in a statement from Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s head of competition, in which she proposed another major change to the iPhone. Although it seems simple at first glance, The implications of being able to delete the Photos app from your iPhone are really important.
Requests that significantly change iOS functionality
As Jon Gruber reports on his website, Vestager has suggested that Apple may be forced to allow iPhone owners to remove the Photos app, a move that could be implemented. If it is done, Will represent a historic change in iOS functionality. A side effect of this action is that you will have to choose again which app you want to use to manage your photo library during iPhone setup.
“The Photos app is more than just an app in iOS. It’s a system-level interface for your photo library that’s integrated throughout the operating system, allowing permission requests from all other apps to provide varying levels of access to your photos. ,” Gruber said.
“According to Vestager, in order to be DMA compliant, Apple would need to allow third-party applications to act as a library of images and access the system-level photo library. “, and the question arises as to how such a request can be reconciled with system-level photo permissions.”
The truth is to choose A separate app other than Photos for managing photo libraries has very serious implications for our privacy. Every app on your iPhone now requests access to the Photos app. This way you can choose whether to allow this access or select only some photos, for example. In this sense, third-party apps do not necessarily have to offer this option.
Does this request make sense at this point?
In fact, Vestager’s comments could be interpreted even more extreme. You may also need to delete the camera app. What about the Phone app? And what about the Settings app? Where are the limits?
Considerations that are not necessarily mentioned in the text of the law come into play here. Both the US Department of Justice’s lawsuit and Europe’s request for her DMA raise the following debates: Legally sound, but may not be practical or realistic when translated into the real world.
Photos compete with health data as one of the most sensitive pieces of information on a device. In this sense, the design of iOS, where the Photos app acts as the custodian of permissions to access this information, is very positive for us as users. Is it a good idea to give users a choice? It depends. Do users really know what they are selecting?
Surely the readers of this article will clearly understand the difference and privacy implications of choosing a particular app as your photo library. However, the same may not be true for a wide range of iPhone users. Of course, we don’t know that yet, but Where the EU draws the line on which apps must be removable, But from now on, a photo app seems like a good idea. Otherwise, as mentioned before, what will happen to your messages, calls, and settings?
Vestager’s comments are conditional for now, so we are probably getting too far ahead of ourselves. Other factors come into play here: The presence of the Photos app does not prevent you from using other Photos apps. In any case, we will have to wait for the EU to conclude whether both Apple and other big technology companies have taken sufficient steps to comply with his DMA’s requirements.
After that, depending on the results, Court intervention that can shape and create jurisprudence around the text of the DMA. Either way, it’s clear that the request to be able to delete the Photos app from an iPhone would have a major impact on the privacy of millions of people. This is a decision that should never be taken lightly.
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