In iOS 17.4, Apple introduced a new system called eligibilityd. This works with countryd (which you might have heard about when it first appeared in iOS 16.2) and the Apple ID system to decide where you physically are. The idea is that multiple sources need to agree on where you are, before giving you access to features such as those mandated by the Digital Markets Act.
Adam Demasi
The way Adam Demasi managed to convince Apple his very much Australian iPhone in Australia was, in fact, a European Union iPhone in the European Union was by making sure not a single wireless signal managed to escape the device. He had to disable location services, insert an Italian SIM, set up a pfSense Wi-Fi router using the regulatory country of Italy, and go into his basement where there’s no mobile signal. Between all these steps, the phone was reset multiple times.
And then, and only then, did the iPhone think it was in the European Union, with all the benefits that entails. Demasi has no idea which of these steps are actually needed, but the process of figuring this all out is ongoing, and more information is sure to be discovered as smart people sink their teeth into the process by which Apple determines where an iPhone is from.
Nice. I guess it’s time to come out of the basement and to realize that in democratic societies people get to decide such things, not Apple. So if you want to use an Apple device in the same way in Australia then in EU, just copy the norms. Or better improve upon them.
I have a more interesting question. What happens with the EU law that in play in this case happen if someone happens to give a phone to a person from the EU when they are outside EU. Some EU laws are written that way and when they are enforced based on nationality of the person not where they physical are this results in companies having to-do it everywhere just to be sure they are in the right.
Outside of EU both you and Apple adhere to local laws. So outside of EU Apple doesn’t have to respect the EU norms and laws. But as you see in Australia you can already establish an EU zone in your basement. So there is no going back now. The same is bound to happen in public life soon.
Common misconception: Data protection laws apply to European citizens, wherever they are. [1] So even a EU citizen in Australia is protected by EU law.
I’m not sure about the DMA, but I don’t think it is extraterritorial.
[1] https://dataprivacymanager.net/who-does-the-eu-gdpr-apply-to/
That is not true, find other sources containing correct information. EU citizen visiting Australia is in the same boat as Adam, the person from Australia that wrote the article.
Geck,
I agree with you Geck, EU laws do not apply in other jurisdictions.
However,, to Serafean’s point, it does echo what EU legislators wrote into the EU laws. They wanted to claim their laws apply regardless of their own jurisdiction. However it would be foolish and naive for EU citizens to actually believe that. They should never assume their privacy rights will carry over to data collection outside of the EU’s jurisdiction. I’d go as far as to suggest EU laws are actively misinforming them.
Better if non-EU users just stopped buying into Apple’s crippled ecosystem. They’d change their dystopian rules soon enough once they noticed that sales of the devices in the rest of the world had plummeted.
Actually iPhone sales have been plummeting for a while now and on top of that it looks like VR division isn’t going anywhere, the car division was sacked too. Considering the amount of time and money that was invested in VR and the result was not meaningful, for a company such as Apple, and considering iPhone not in a position to grow substantially any more. Something will indeed need to change at Apple and it will be interesting to see on what. Some of us still know what Apple was in the pre iPhone era, we lived through the era of iPhone and seen the Apple that it became, now i guess Apple will again need to reinvent itself or it will slowly demise.
Geck,
Mobile phones are likely to follow the same lull that personal computers did as the market became mature and saturated. Apple might still lean on planned obsolescence to increase sales: something useful that stops working or decreasing performance like they had done with the batteries, Ultimately though they’re still the dominant phone manufacturer but such a wide margin that “demise” is surely too strong a word,