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Comment by bb123 | Hacker News Reader

I think it will be very hard to do that when the other big players move their apps off the store. They will be effectively forced to download apps like WhatsApp and Instagram from wherever Meta puts them. The net result is more hassle, more risk, and worse privacy and security for them. How is that a win?

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If Meta does that, they will be creating their own walled garden next to the Apple one. Meta won't allow pirated software and malware to run rampant on their own store.

Privacy and security (of other data on your phone) should be ensured through technological measures like strict sandboxing and permissions that allow sensor data to be spoofed. This is largely already the case, but any remaining gaps should be filled with technological barriers, not underpaid human reviewers prone to mistakes, favoritism, and politics.

Do you think that meta will give up their presence on the official app store in order to move to a unofficial app store? Because apple will not allow apps on apple app store if they are unofficial, i have no data, but I suspect they will not

Meta could have done that on Android, they have not, there is your data... it seems that as long as Apple remains a trusted and reasonable partner, Meta will continue to use Apples App Store to distribute their apps, just like they continue to use Google's Play Store today.

> when the other big players move their apps off the store.

It did not happen on Android.

> They remember the days of windows XP well - endless viruses, trojans and expensive security software.

>They will be effectively forced to download apps like WhatsApp and Instagram from wherever Meta puts them

So, what's the connect? You've started with big scary viruses and ended up with WhatsApp?

I'm looking at it from the perspective of my parents.

For them it is a major feature of the iPhone that you can download any app with complete impunity. No need for $150/year antivirus (for those big scary viruses windows used to get absolutely riddled with). No need to worry it's going to change your default search engine or start mining bitcoin. You know when you download something from the App Store it has been through some level of vetting. I'm not sure why so many people here are wilfully blind to this use case.

Also, the reason I specifically bring up WhatsApp is that we know Facebook will take ridiculous liberties given the chance - remember Onavo?

The thing is that apple app store is also filled with scammy apps, so the argument is flawed at the start, you can’t outsource your security and act on the internet like youre blind and doesn’t affect you, you need to be attentive

> The thing is that apple app store is also filled with scammy apps, so the argument is flawed at the start

So you think to improve the security is to make the problem even worse by having more installable unchecked ransomware on the iPhone.

Really can’t wait for the flood of sideloaded malware and ransomware that made Android phones the insecure toxic hellstew that it still is today; on the iPhone. /s

I can't wait either. I've got a number of sideloaded apps on my Android phone (Netguard, KeePassDX, even a Hacker News client to name a few) and have no viruses to speak of. Closest thing to malware I can notice is the OEM software.

But you're not as ignorant add your patents, so why repeat the obviously false FUD? No, there is no such thing as "complete immunity", what it the basis for worrying that Safari's default search can be easily changed by an app from a different store? How are viruses in the past(!) on Windows(!) relevant?

You're not describing an honest "use case", so there is nothing to be willfully blind about

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