Phil Schiller: “Alternative app stores put iPhone at risk”

Fast Company interviewed Apple's Phil Schiller, who has the odd title of “Apple Fellow,” in which he detailed the dangers of alternative app stores. In the interview, he said that new rules introduced within the EU in March “provide new options for developers, but they also bring new risks. There's no getting around it. So we're doing everything we can to reduce these risks for everyone.”

Google, whose Android phones can download apps from any location, published figures showing that by the end of September 2023, 0.153 percent of all Android devices, even with Google Play Protect enabled, had malicious apps installed on them. Two-tenths isn't a lot, but considering there are three billion Android devices in the world, as many as 4.5 million phones are infected with potentially malicious apps.

So what are the risks faced by iPhone users in the EU who decide to download apps from alternative app stores? More obvious apps include apps that, for example, pretend to be a photo editor but also contain a hidden code that records keyboard input. Phil Schiller tells Fast Company that Apple has “packaged more than 600 new APIs for developers to give them the tools to create a marketplace, install an app, and put the user in control of the process.”

Schiller also notes that Apple has rolled out a number of new protections to reduce the risks faced by users who download apps from alternative app stores. This includes the authentication process for all iPhone apps, regardless of which App Store they are available on. Before an app can be installed, developers must submit it to Apple, which will run a selection of automatic scans to look for malware. If no issues are found, Apple will approve the app and give it a digital key that allows installation on the iPhone.

But Schiller is quick to point out that despite the new security measures, there are limits to what Apple can do. They have almost no control over the content of apps from third-party stores.

“At the end of the day, there are things we didn't allow in our App Store — things we didn't think were safe or appropriate,” Schiller says. “Does this increase the risk of users and families encountering offensive content or other experiences? Yes it does.” “