“Sideloading is a cyber criminal’s best friend and requiring that on iPhone would be a gold rush for the malware industry,” Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi said in a dramatic speech delivered at Web Summit 2021 against the European Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act. The act, if passed, would require Apple to let users install apps from outside the App Store.

He added saying that the lack of sideloading is the thing that separates Apple from the “5 million Android attacks per month,” and if Apple were to allow users to install their own apps, the floodgates for malware will be opened (via The Verge).

Federighi is totally against the proposed notion of letting the user themselves decide the risk of sideloading apps. He opines that cybercriminals are clever and can even victimize informed users through misleading websites and fake app stores.

But if you feel you are one of those tech-savvy people that will be unscathed by whatever criminals toss at you, then Federighi asks to think about children or parents who might still be fooled. This is kind of ironic considering Apple still has to often deal with multimillion-dollar scams despite having strong restrictions put in place currently against sideloading apps.

Apart from malware risks, the Apple senior vice president has also raised red flags about social media apps that may try to get around the strict privacy protection standards of the App Store.

It is worth mentioning here that despite all of the claims, Apple’s macOS actually has allowed sideloading of apps for decades, yet is mostly safe from the scale of malware attacks described by Federighi. The Gatekeeper system, which allows Apple to check signed developer IDs to confirm the software is genuine, has a huge role to play in this.

Of course, a similar system could be implemented on iOS as well, allowing sideloading on iPhone without the risk of malware. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez had noted this saying that Apple may be “stretching the truth” on malware concerns and that Apple could implement a Gatekeeper-like system on iOS if it wanted to.

Last but not least, Federighi’s speech had completely ignored the fact that not allowing sideloading on iOS forces all app transactions to flow through the App Store. This is a huge benefit for Apple as it generates billions of dollars since Apple takes a 30% cut.

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