Apple Exec Claims North Dakota App Store Bill 'Threatens to Destroy the iPhone as You Know It'

Apple Chief Privacy Engineer Erik Neuenschwander recently spoke out against a proposed bill in the North Dakota Senate that would prevent Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their respective app stores and payment methods, stating that it “threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it.”

MacRumors reports that this week the North Dakota Senate introduced a new bill that would prevent Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their respective app store and payment methods.

Senate Bill 2333 was introduced by Sen. Kyle Davison (R) who stated that it was designed to “level the playing field” for app developers in North Dakota and shield customers from “devastating, monopolistic fees imposed by big tech companies,” referring to the fees that Apple and Google take from developers.

The bill would prevent Apple from requiring developers to use a digital application distribution platform as the exclusive method of distributing a digital product and would keep the company from requiring developers to use in-app purchases at the exclusive mode of accepting payment from a user.

Apple’s requirement that developers use their payment systems has caused issues in the past, with Epic Games currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the tech giant over the policy.

Apple Chief Privacy Engineer Erik Neuenschwander slammed Senate Bill 2333 stating that it “threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it” by demanding the company make changes that would “undermine the privacy, security, safety, and performance” of the ‌iPhone‌.

Neuenschwander stated that Apple “works hard” to remove bad apps from the iOS App Store and North Dakota’s bill would “require us to let them in.”

Breitbart News reported recently that iOS developer Kosta Eleftheriou has been highlighting a growing issue in recent weeks — scam apps available in the Apple app store. Each of the scam apps Eleftheriou found appeared to use the same method including boosting their apparent legitimacy in the app store by purchasing fake reviews.

Eleftheriou has exposed a number of scam apps on the App Store. He even compiled a thread titled “How to spot a $5M/year scam on the App Store, in 5 minutes flat.” In this thread, he pointed out an app called Star Gazer+ which is still available on the App Store with a 4.4 rating from over 80,000 allegedly fake users.