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Apple FAS and Parental Control Developers

I have long wanted to dot the i in the FAS antitrust investigation against Apple on a complaint from Kaspersky Lab (LC) because I see in the comments that not everyone understands what it is about.

It is about the unacceptable actions of a large company with market power, in relation to small and not so.

So what happened? For many years, a group of 20+ developers of parental control applications has quietly, peacefully and successfully developed and promoted their applications in the AppStore. For some, this was the only business. One of the main features of this application is web control, as well as monitoring the child’s geolocation and protection against deletion. Well there is a lot more / was. More than a dozen developers used MDM or configuration profiles to implement this functionality, in which the necessary settings and restrictions were easily set. For example, using the configuration profile and the corresponding key, you could hide Safari, and the child could only use a secure browser. Convenient, simple, easy and efficient.

But with the release of iOS12 with the built-in ScreenTime function, which is also parental control, miracles started wonderful. Apple suddenly began to refuse to publish parental control applications that used profiles. It began to happen exactly what happened with Lyubov Vyaznikova and her Sense application, read this story , I highly recommend it.
But Lyuba was alone, and the developers of parental controls simply reared up, the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 were marked by massive angry publications on this topic and this wave was picked up by the "big" media like Bloomberg, The New York Times, Washington Post.

In truth, it’s worth saying that MDM profiles have always been intended for use in organizations, and this is clearly indicated in the MDM protocol reference, as well as in other documents, but there were no such restrictions in the Configuration Profile Reference, at least since 2015 to June 2019. But LK was also banned for using MDM profiles, it can be seen to the heap.

In April 2019, Apple writes an angry article on the official website, saying that I refuse to everyone on the case, and it is not a matter of competition, but security, they are using the prohibited. But the wave of anger in the media and the filing of complaints with the European Commission and the Federal Antimonopoly Service do their job, and after more than 30 days the profiles are allowed to be used with certain conditions.

The end of the denouement? Whatever the case, in iOS 13, Apple complicates the issuance of permissions for geolocation, which is critical for monitoring the position of a child, selects the ability to protect the application with a key from deletion and hide Safari through the profile. Now, if you want to hide Safari, the developer of the parental control application should give instructions to his users: activate ScreenTime and there you can do it deep in the settings. What?

At the same time, she killed a business for companies like Tile, since she herself bought a keyring factory in Zelenograd to search for lost things, read the testimony of a Tile lawyer , and read.

The result of all the letters above is simple, as soon as Apple releases its application or functionality that has already gained popularity, competitors are hard pressed and driven out. So with the profiles, Apple looked through the fingers for many years at the fact that everyone uses them, but when the segment grew, business value appeared, immediately started talking about violations, along the way making life difficult for everyone. That's right, because she always says that she carefully checks everything, could not help but see, and she does not believe in coincidence with the output of ScreenTime. Moreover, introducing restrictions on others, she leaves all the preferences to her crafts, and where is the fair competition? Google, for example, began to pursue a balanced policy. But not about Google now.

Here is another good example, the cry of Yaroslavnafrom the developer Boomerang Parental Control with all the timeline.

Yes, someone can say this is her platform, doing what she wants. No, not once. Companies with a dominant position and market power (and Apple does) are already subject to antitrust restrictions; they cannot even refuse to conclude an agreement. And it is right. Another argument, ScreenTime is free, Apple has no incentive to strangle developers, because this is its popularity. And this is also not an argument, believe me, but this is the topic of a separate article.

Actually, the LC trial on this topic exactly is Apple’s abuse of power, Spotify complaint from the same series.

Well, now the question that torments me and ask for help, who knows. As I wrote above, to hide the Safari icon, the configuration profile was loaded, just an xml file in which the allowsafari key was written. A very simple and elegant way that Apple took from the developers (took away the ability to use this key).

The method of setting other restrictions through the profile itself remains. In ScreenTime in the settings, you can hide Safari by swiping a slider, but the question is, what is really happening?

I think that when you press the slider, Apple itself uses the installation of the same configuration profile with the same allowsafari key, only hides its installation for the user. Here is simple logic, why cut through the second entrance door, if one is already there? It is unlikely that another tool is used. And if this is so, then here is another example of unfair competition: it forbade others, left it to itself.

If one of the iPhone experts deeply explores the topic and tells you how it actually works, I will be very grateful.

D.Polyakov

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