With a letter signed by 40 members of Congress sent Monday, Apple faces increased federal pressure over its plan to shut down the Apple Towson Town Center store in Maryland. The location, set to close on June 20, holds the distinction of being the first Apple retail store in the United States to unionize.
The congressional letter pulls no punches. The lawmakers describe the closure as “unacceptable in its impact, and deeply troubling in its national implications for workers’ rights.”
A bipartisan bill expected to be proposed in the U.S. congress would, if passed, have an enormous effect on Big Tech. The legislation, reportedly called the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, might force Apple to make the App Store a completely separate business not under its control.
Efforts to regulate Big Tech continue with Democrats currently circulating drafts of antitrust bills that could affect the likes of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google.
While there is every possibility that these draft bills morph over time, the biggest way they would currently affect Apple is by curtailing its ability to operate an app marketplace. This feeds into growing criticism about Apple’s control of the App Store, which has been the subject of investigation around the world.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a letter with questions about the App Privacy labels displayed in the App Store. The letter was prompted by a published report that many of these privacy “nutrition labels” contain incorrect information.
Lawmakers reportedly will quiz Apple on its “copy-acquire-kill” strategy during Wednesday’s congressional antitrust hearing.
According to the Washington Post, this will be one of the areas that Apple will be scrutinized on to see if it has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. “Copy-acquire-kill” refers to buying companies to acquire their innovative features, before killing them to stop other platforms from having access to them.
Lawmakers from the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Reform want Apple and Google to investigate where third-party apps are storing their data.
In two letters sent Tuesday, Stephen Lynch, chairman of the National Security Subcommittee, wrote to Apple and Google that certain non-U.S. apps could pose securities risks.
The CEOs of four of biggest tech firms will testify in the House of Representatives’s probe into antitrust activities. That includes Apple’s Tim Cook, along with the heads of Amazon, Facebook and Google.
This is part of an ongoing investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into whether the largest tech companies play fair with smaller competitors.
U.S. lawmakers want to talk to the CEOs of the biggest tech firms. And the heads of Amazon, Facebook and Google said they‘re willing to testify in the House of Representatives’s probe into antitrust activities. Apple, on the other hand, reportedly told Congress that it’s willing to send a senior executive, but stopped short of promising that would be CEO Tim Cook.
A group of app developers have set up a new lobbyist association called the App Coalition. This independent group will lobby Congress regarding issues relating to app developers.
A Bloomberg report, published Wednesday, notes that nine mobile app developers have banded together for the new organization. The new lobbying group is distinct from the App Association, already sponsored by Apple, Microsoft, and others.
No one could protest legislation aimed at curbing child sex abuse, but a bill that reportedly will be introduced soon in the US Congress could have much wider consequences. One result might be a legally mandated requirement that messaging services have a “backdoor” so that law enforcement can read all encrypted messages.
One of tech’s biggest opponents in Washington D.C. proposed a new bill this week that could have huge implications on Apple and TikTok’s business operations if put into law.
GOP senator Josh Hawley from Missouri introduced legislation today that would prevent the Chinese company that owns TikTok from collecting information on American users and sharing it with the Communist Party of China. The bill would also stop American companies like Apple from storing user data in China.
Spotify is reportedly helping the feds with their antitrust investigation into Apple’s App Store.
U.S. lawmakers asked Spotify to submit information related to an ongoing antitrust investigation into whether Apple engages in anticompetitive behavior. As one of Apple’s biggest critics, Spotify already helped with probes in Europe. However, this is the first news we’ve had of the company assisting investigators in the United States.
House Judiciary Committee leaders want Tim Cook to turn over his emails and other information as part of a possible antitrust investigation.
Cook is one of dozens of executives from Apple, Facebook, Google parent company Alphabet and Amazon named in the request. It follows increased scrutiny of Apple, particularly surrounding the way that it runs the App Store — and possible conflicts of interest that result.
Facebook’s trick of never letting readers get to the bottom of its homepage would be banned under a law just proposed in the U.S. Senate. The same legislation also would block auto-playing media.
The goal is to make social networking less entrancing.
US lawmakers say Apple CEO Tim Cook has actively urged them to pass legislation that better protects the privacy of US consumers. However, congresspeople also say the iPhone maker isn’t doing enough to actually get laws passed.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have summoned the biggest tech companies in the nation to come to testify before an anti-trust panel. Apple’s representative will be joined by executives from Amazon, Facebook and Google on July 16.
When it comes to lobbying Congress, Apple’s biggest focus by far is on tax laws. Out of 236 lobbying reports since 2005, tax is mentioned in a massive 76%.
This is one takeaway from a new report, analyzing lobbying spend from the big five tech giants, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Between them, they have spent $582 million on lobbying since 2005. According to the report, Apple spent $9.6 million on lobbying last year, and $59.9 million since 2005.
Apple spent $6.6 million lobbying Congress and other federal officials in 2018, newly released records show. While that’s approximately in line with the $7 million it spent in 2017, it’s considerably less than the amount spent by some of Apple’s FAANG rivals.
During the same period, Facebook spent $12.6 million, Amazon spent $14.2 million, and Google — the biggest lobbyist by far — spent a massive $21 million. That’s an increase on Google’s $18 million spend in 2017.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) published a draft privacy bill this morning that proposes making it harder for companies to track people’s location or collect biometric information about them.
Apple is a top donor to the CDT, and the company has taken a strong stance on protecting user’s privacy.
Privacy has become a hot-button issue, and a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives recently sent Apple some questions about iPhone privacy protections. These were about location tracking, audio recordings, and third-party applications.
The in-depth responses spell out Apple’s strong commitment to iPhone user’s privacy in all these areas.
Congress has called the FBI on the carpet for its attempt to require Apple to build a backdoor into the iPhone. A letter went out today from a bi-partisan group of representatives accusing the law enforcement agency of over-stating difficulties in unlocked iPhones involved in crimes.
The ten congresspeople wrote that the FBI deliberately didn’t explore all the options to unlock the iPhone belonging to a mass shooter because they wanted an excuse to force Apple to modify iOS so it’s easy for law enforcement to access.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch are usually on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but the two business titans are coming together to support a common cause: The Dreamers.
In a rare opinion piece authored by Cook and Koch, the two implore Congress to act now so that this holiday season isn’t the last one in the United States for 690,000 of our neighbors.
Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out a new letter this morning pledging to help fight for the protection of his employees who are now at risk of being deported.
The letter comes just hours after Donald Trump’s administration revealed plans to officially rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in the next six months. If Trump’s plan goes through, hundreds of Apple employees who are Dreamers could be forced out of the country. In his email, Cook says he’ll work with members of Congress from both parties to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Read Tim’s inspiring note to employees:
Apple, Amazon, Cisco, and Microsoft are supporting Google in a new fight against the FBI.
The technology giants filed an amicus brief in Pennsylvania this week after a court ruled that Google must hand over emails in response to an FBI search warrant.
2016 sent Apple for a wild ride full of fantastic new products, crazy controversies and tons of extra drama with its rivals.
Tim Cook and his colleagues probably can’t wait to jump into 2017. But before we start looking toward Apple’s future, let’s take a quick look back at all the stories that made 2016 a year Apple fans will never forget.