iPhone get their first porn app and Apple is not happy

Apple had no choice but to approve pornography for the first time, thanks to a major overhaul of App Store rules in Europe. But he wants you to know that it’s not satisfied with it.

The problem is not just pure content. Apple says the door is open for easier access for malware.

“We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn applications of this type create for EU users, especially for children,” a spokesman for Apple said in a statement. “This app and others like it will undermine the trust and confidence of consumers in our ecosystem that we have worked for more than a decade to make the best in the world.”

The app, Hot Tub, is not available on Apple’s own iOS App Store, but can be downloaded through a third party Altstore, which you can only access the iPhone in Europe. After the introduction of Digital Markets ActEU asked last January that Apple opened its famous closed iOS Ecosystem to allow iPhone owners access to alternative stores and applications for application.

Altstore Started on iOS three months laterAllowing iPhone users in Europe access to a third -party app store for the first time and initially requires a subscription fee. It was while Epic Games, one of the companies that have been fighting Apple under the rules of their App Store over the years, have provided an AltStore grant to compensate for the cost of providing their alternative front at the iOS store. One of the available apps is Hot Tub, which has content from the controversial porn hub site.

The risk of malware on iPhone

Apple approved the hot bath app (no other choice, according to EU rules), but the company really wants you to know that it doesn’t really support it – a decisive difference that both the hot tub and Altstore did not clarify in their marketing materials.

“Contrary to false statements made by the market developer, we certainly do not approve of this app and would never offer it at our app store,” said the Apple spokesman. “The truth is that the European Commission is required to allow it to be distributed by market operators such as Altstore and Epic, which may not share our concerns about consumer safety.”

Apple has the right to worry about its reputation among iPhone users, IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo says. In addition to the risk of children able to easily have access to porn, there is a broad risk of safety caused by applications that are not subject to the same level of strict check control to determine which applications should be allowed in their own store For applications. This opens it for the risk of malware to find its path on the iPhone – a threat that Apple has long been able to minimize by maintaining control of the iOS app ecosystem.

People whose iPhone finds themselves with malware are unlikely to know or even take care of whose guilt it is and to direct their finger to Apple, says Jeronimo. The challenge of the company and his priorityis to try to keep users as fascinated as possible as you apply the changes required by European regulators. It’s Tricky Tightrope for the company to walkS “What we see and what we will see is that at the end of the day this regulation will put users at risk,” Jeronimo said.

The European Commission has long spoken a big game about its motivation for the destruction of major American technology companies, mainly about improving the experience of European consumers. The benefit of third -party app stores is that they are supposedly to increase consumers’ choice, but many, including Apple, believe that they do not compromise on safety.

“There is absolutely no use except for a few companies that will spread their applications and get some business,” Jeronimo said.

The arrival of an Altstore hot tub is just the tip of the iceberg. It is inevitable that more such applications that can create different problems and risks to follow.