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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

As an Apple user, I kind of view the App Store as a kind of collective bargaining with app developers. If you want to have access to Apple Users you need to adhere to certain standards.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Apple are some of the scummiest companies and their software is full of dark patterns.

Apple’s App Store does a lot to protect me.

I guess I view this bill much as a union member might view a “Right to work bill”. Theoretically it is increasing user choice, but in practice it will just allow a race to the bottom in terms of privacy and dark patterns.

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Collective bargaining involves two parties, one representing the 'collective'. App stores are more at-will: 'my way or the highway'.

The collective of Apple’s users makes its will known by continuing to purchase iPhones.

Then they can continue to use Apple's App Store and all the other stores will fail.

You don't have to side load. If you value the 'protections' the app stores offer, you can continue to use them, from how this reads.

How do you explain the plethora of sub standard apps already in both major app stores then?

Everyone would be glad if Apple and Google would drastically drop their cut to 5%-7%. They basically take a risk free 15-30% stake in revenues (!) of many companies that serve users on mobile devices.

Well then that’s what the bill should say.

Law is not about making people happy

Someone is going to be happy with this law. Just not the customers.

"Apple’s App Store does a lot to protect me." You can still have that by only installing apps from the App store, no? While I can sideload app from any website I trust. And someone else can install a whole different store they trust. I don't see how it affects your protection in any way.

> I don't see how it affects your protection in any way.

The way it affects me is that now, developers are faced with the choice - adhere to Apple’s privacy standards or lose out on the lucrative iOS market. With side loading, they will have the further option of just telling people to side load their apps and not put them on the App Store.

This if I desire that the popular apps I use respect my privacy and avoid dark patterns (like making it impossible to cancel subscriptions), then them having an option to avoid Apple’s oversight makes it less likely that they will adhere to these standards.

That is a fair point.

Then don't use third party stores. Done.

Apple never deploys dark patterns?

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