Apple has published a new user guide wherein the tech giant has tried to explain its stand on why sideloading third party app stores would not be in the best interests of iPhone users, a move that could gravely endanger the privacy and the security of the platform.
Titled ‘Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps’, the report states Apple’s view that having a curated and scrutinised App Store should be the only place from where to download iOS apps from.
In the document, Apple stresses on the fact that since there are third party apps for Android apps, there is a higher risk for an Android device to become the victim of a virus or malware attack.
This is actually true and many reports have surfaced which have pointed out the origin of the malware that infected a certain number of Android devices being a third party Android app store.
Apple says that should it choose to allow sideloading of third party app stores on the iOS platform, it “would open the door to a world where users may not have a choice but to accept these risks, because some apps may no longer be available on the App Store, and scammers could trick users into thinking they are safely downloading apps from the App Store when that is not the case.
Sideloading would expose users to scammers who will exploit apps to mislead users, attack iPhone security features, and violate user privacy.” The tech giant also added that such a move on its part would make it difficult for users to rely on the Ask to Buy parental control feature.
With third party app stores, scammers could then trick kids and parents by “obfuscating the nature of their apps, making both features less effective.” Incidents like this would lead to a continuously alarming situation for iPhone users as they would have no means of trusting an app they download and would always be on the lookout for some scam.
Consequently, users would end up using fewer apps from fewer developers, said Apple.