European regulators want less gatekeeping by big tech companies, but they might face a bigger problem in the future.
The main intention behind the Digital Market Act (DMA), a European Union (EU) law, is to regulate the activity of big technology companies to ensure that the digital economy is fairer and more competitive.
Apple was among the first companies affected by EU law when it was forced to open its devices (iPhones and iPads) to App Store competitors.
Even before the DMA implementation, the company had already warned about the high risk of piracy through sideloading, an act of downloading apps that aren't in official app stores such as the App Store or Play Store.
Despite Apple taking some protective measures, such as controlling every application published outside of its official store for security reasons, this didn’t stop developers of pirate apps from creating alternate stores with questionable apps.
One such example is AltStore, an alternative store for iOS users that’s “designed for sideloading." It offers tweaked and jailbreaked applications, or apps that are paid on App Store.
On April 17th, AltStore released a second app store that can be accessed via the first one and that can install any cracked software, reports Numerama. This makes it easier for Europeans to bypass licensing restrictions.
AltStore Classic, an already available application in AltStore, is well known among hackers who use it to crack paid apps on iPhones. Previously, this activity was quite complicated, but with AltStore Classic, it can be done in seconds.
It’s been reported that AltStore Classic doesn't actually contain any illegal or pirated applications. To get those, users have app sources that are usually found in forums – they add them to get apps that are usually illegal or prohibited. These could be cracked versions of Spotify, YouTube, or ad-free versions of social networks, as well as iOS or macOS emulators.
Due to DMA, Apple has to allow the installation of such apps because on paper, it doesn’t offer anything illegal. However, in this case, the company can’t even apply its protective measures as AltStore Classic has hidden its “hacking mode.”
Even if Apple were to remove AltStore Classic in Europe, it would go into a battle with DMA.
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