Tile accuses Apple of abusing its position

On Friday, another round of hearings took place in the US Congress, where a long-term investigation of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and others is taking place within one commission, with regard to their potential abuse of their position in the market and harming competition. This time, representatives of the companies Tile, PopSockets, Sonos and Basecamp arrived in the House of Representatives.

Small companies participate in these hearings because they are trying to point out how big, market-dominating companies are hurting them. A representative of Tile spoke out against Apple in this case. It produces small portable locators, something that according to long-term speculation Apple is also preparing.

Tile representatives complain that Apple is gradually and purposefully harming the company with the actions it is taking. During the hearing, for example, there was an argument about location tracking and the use of the Bluetooth communication protocol for localization purposes, as well as the redesign of the Find My application, which allegedly closely resembles the Tile application. Apple changed location tracking options in iOS 13, and users now have even more control over when and to whom they allow location tracking on their iPhone and iPad.

According to a Tile representative, the Find My system app has an advantage over the others in that location tracking is always on for its needs, while location tracking for 3rd-party apps needs to be explicitly enabled by users in a "deeply hidden and inaccessible setting, which additionally needs constantly confirm”.

Some lawyers refer to this change in iOS 13 as an attempt by Apple to gain some kind of advantage over providers of similar services. Apple, on the other hand, argues for increased control and transparency with regard to users and their protection from potential loss of privacy by providers of similar applications. An Apple spokesperson supported this argument by stating that "Apple does not base its business model on knowing where its users are."

Tile's lawyers are trying to draw attention to the above problems and want the congressional committee to take steps that will level the playing field. The question remains how the company will respond to Apple introducing a product that is a direct competitor to Tile's products. This news is referred to as "Apple day".

In connection with Friday's meeting on the floor of the congress, Apple representatives let it be heard that in the next updates of iOS and macOS, users will see a setting that will allow location tracking permanently, without any other periodic notifications.

Source: MacRumors