Smartphone maker Apple has written to lawmakers to refute claims that their concerns about the risk of downloading apps to phones are overcrowded.
Loading aside, the practice of downloading apps without using the app store, is among the changes lawmakers hope will open up the apps app.
Congress is currently considering a bill aimed at tightening up Apple store-owned app stores and Alphabet’s Google, which would require companies to allow for exceptions.
Apple has argued that such a practice could be a security risk as it maintains strict control over in-app apps to keep users safe.
In a letter Thursday sent to key members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Apple said it was aware that critic, computer security expert Bruce Schneier, called his concerns about the exclusion “unfounded.”
Apple went on to argue that most malware is not relying on technology to access devices but instead deceives the human user to download it.
It argues that Apple’s review of applications installed on the App Store “creates a high barrier against common scams used to distribute malicious software.”
Apple acknowledged that Schneier was adamant that government-sponsored attackers could access the security of smartphones but argued that these types of attacks were “a rare threat.”
“There is a lot of evidence that third-party software stores are an important vector of malware on the platforms that support such stores,” Apple said in a letter reviewed by Reuters.
Posted on Senate Judiciary Committee chair, Dick Durbin, senior Republican, Chuck Grassley and Amy Klobuchar, chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, and senior Republican Mike Lee.
The committee voted in early February to pass the bill. This measure will also prevent companies from requiring app providers to use their payment system and will also prevent them from penalizing apps that offer different prices or conditions by another app store or payment system.
Major technology companies, including Facebook’s Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com, have been under pressure from Congress over allegations of abuse of power in the major markets. A long list of loans is intended to strengthen them, but none have become legal.
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