Update: In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple said:
“The App Store was designed to be a safe and trusted place for users to download apps, and the goals of the DSA align with Apple’s goals to protect consumers from illegal and harmful content. We are working to implement the requirements of the DSA with user privacy and security as our continued North Star.”
We learned back in April that Apple was one of 19 companies that would be subject to the Digital Services Act. The law comes into force today, and it’s not clear whether or not the iPhone maker is complying.
Indeed, many are saying that this is the big problem with the act: There’s a lot of subjectivity involved in determining whether a company is breaking the law, making enforcement tricky …
What’s the Digital Services Act?
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is European legislation designed to protect people from false information, from disguised ads, and from your personal data being used to target you without your knowledge.
Initially, it impacts 19 tech giants that have been identified as operating very large platforms – that is, influencing a great many people.
The primary purpose of the DSA is to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation and disinformation on social networks.
Misinformation is false or misleading information that people disseminate innocently, believing it to be true. Disinformation is when someone knowingly posts false claims, with the deliberate intention to deceive.
Both can, of course, be equally harmful, which is why the DSA now obliges social networks to act promptly when either misinformation or disinformation is reported. Additionally, it requires them to quickly remove illegal material, such as child sexual abuse material.
While much of this is a matter of objective fact, there is also a significant gray area. For example, if an indicted former president were to return to Twitter (now X) with a post featuring his police mugshot and the words “election interference,” is that disinformation, or a confession?
That’s why many think that enforcing the DSA will be exceedingly difficult.
Why does the DSA impact Apple?
A secondary goal of the DSA is to ensure transparency in the way that large tech companies target customers. Where a company recommends products or services to consumers, for example, it must make clear why it is doing so.
In particular, a company must clearly identify ads or sponsored posts to distinguish them from editorial, and if it uses personal data to make personalized recommendations, it must disclose this.
Apple must comply with the DSA in respect of the App Store. Ads and paid slots in search results must be clearly identified as such. Additionally, when you are presented with recommended apps – as we are every time we visit the App Store – Apple must make it clear why we are seeing these recommendations.
For example, when we see a category like “Games with great stories,” any apps appearing in that list that have paid to be there must be tagged as ads or sponsored listings. If any of your recommendations are personalized, using personal data Apple holds on you (for example, an app is being recommended to you because Apple knows you bought a similar game in the past), that fact must also be disclosed.
Is Apple complying?
Is the App Store in compliance? It’s essentially impossible to know. For example, one of the first categories I see on the home page is a selection of apps called “Express yourself: Tools for creators.” Is Apple showing that category to me because it knows I’ve downloaded other creative apps? Or is it being shown to everyone today? I have no way to tell.
When I tap on that category, were the apps listed picked by Apple editorial staff, or have any of those developers paid to be included in the list? Again, I have no way to know.
Let’s assume I am being targeted based on personal data Apple holds on me, and let’s further assume that at least one of those developers paid for inclusion. Given that not even I – the targeted person – can tell, how could a regulator possibly know?
ArsTechnica says that enforcement is similarly challenging for other companies on the list. It additionally notes that social media networks that have conducted tests to see whether they are even capable of complying have found that, in many cases, they are not.
We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update with any response.
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