Sideloaded apps can be more secure than any App Store app today

Could you not just add the same network permissions toggle for your app in the app store as well? or does Apple not allow it? Then again, there is already the ability to toggle internet access for each individual app.

Of course sideloaded ads would be more secure if you assume certain security controls can only be applied outside of the app store.

Yeah, not very convincing.

Most apps connect to the internet for all kinds of stuff - updated assets, uploading your photos to some service, getting information, and so on. Which apps would that exclude? Even an on-device wordle game might ask for access to share your daily score. What after you give it then? It can do whatever it likes...

It would be so simple to add "internet access" to the list of toggleable permissions for all apps. The reason no one does is malice on the part of phone OS creators - need to sell ads.

Does this prompt exist today?

There are legitimate reasons for any app to want to connect to the internet. Once the permission is granted, couldn’t they just do anything?

Couldn’t this also apply to apps from the App Store?

There's already a per-app cellular data permission and a bluetooth permission; I'd be in favor of adding per-app WiFi and USB permissions in addition to the global settings.