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Implementing regular, consistent security checks and auditing mechanisms, as Apple does, will increase trust in the DeFi system as a whole.
If you’re an Apple App Store user, then you’re probably aware of the recent legal drama surrounding the updates to the App Store guidelines. It’s a reasonably open secret that the App Store is designed to be at its core, more difficult for app developers to deploy their apps on than competitors' offerings, pushing for a “quality over quantity” environment to protect its user base.
With this push by Apple, we have just witnessed with the hammer coming down on the conservative social media app Parler following in the footsteps of Twitter and Facebook permanently banning former-U.S. President Donald Trump from its platforms. Apple and Google decided to remove the alt-right social media platform from its App Store and Marketplace. Both platforms “said the app didn’t do enough to moderate incendiary talk.” This move comes after the horrific Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump mobs and concerns that Trump has used platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Parler to incite violence.
But discussions surrounding Apple’s App Store guidelines revolve around two types of mobile apps — those that collect user data and those that offer personal loans, which have preyed upon many consumers.
Guarding user privacy
Back in December, Apple implemented its long-anticipated privacy practice guidelines for app developers featured on its App Store platform. These new guidelines are Apple’s attempts at complying with the newly enacted privacy laws, including California’s Consumer Privacy Act, New York’s SHIELD Act and Europe’s General Data Privacy Protection Regulation.
Under the new guidelines, any app developer featured on Apple’s App Store must now clearly display on its product page: “(1) the kind of data that the developer [...] or any of its third-party partners is collecting, and (2) what the developer or its partners plan to do with the accumulated data.”
Personal loans
Apple and lawmakers have identified a major problem in the ecosystem, where apps have abused consumers through predatory practices. In the latest update to its guidelines, Apple has added revised rules for all personal and loan applications. Specifically, Section 3.2 states that “apps offering personal loans must clearly and conspicuously disclose all loan terms.” This includes apps being restricted to charging no more than “a maximum APR higher than 36%, including costs and fees, and may not require repayment in full in 60 days or less.”
These changes are yet another demonstration of how Apple cares about protecting its users from predatory lenders after a series of public debates spurred developer restrictions in the best interest of protecting U.S. citizens.
Back in September, Apple announced that it had “voluntarily adopted the policy and would block lenders offering higher rates from accessing Apple’s hundreds of millions of users.” As Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said:
“The unfortunate reality is that Americans, and all too often low-income and minority Americans, are falling victim to predatory loan practices, and we wanted to do our part to prevent this opportunistic behavior. By implementing the widely adopted standard set by the MLA [Military Lending Act], we can ensure we are protecting not just our service members from predatory loan terms, but our entire App Store user base all over the world.”
Last year, lawmakers introduced a bill that would take the 36% cap to all borrowers nationwide, ultimately removing the 400%+ annual interest rates that essentially anyone can offer. In other words, if your app allows for personal loans to be made through a phone, the lender cannot offer users an APR beyond 36%, otherwise, it’s considered to be predatory.
Simultaneously, Senator Sherrod Brown asked Apple to apply the 36% limit to any mobile apps that offered personal loans on its devices:
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/injecting-apple-like-quality-control-into-defi-is-what-we-need