Apple has been facing several accusations of anti-competitive practices in multiple countries as investigations into the company’s dominant position go on. Now the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking into the fact that Apple forces developers to adopt the “Sign in with Apple” button if the app has other third-party login methods.
As reported by The Information, investigators want to know if the “Sign in with Apple” button makes it harder for users to migrate to another platform, such as Android or Windows. While some members of Congress praise Apple for its privacy efforts, others believe that the company has been abusing its control over the software on its devices to harm its competitors.
Sources for the report said that some developers began filing complaints about the sign-in button with US investigators last summer. “Sign in with Apple” was introduced in 2019 as an easy and secure way to create an account on apps and websites using just an Apple ID.
However, while using “Sign in with Apple” in iOS and Mac apps is somewhat optional for developers, Apple forces them to use its own solution if the app already offers login through Facebook, Google, or other services. Two developers told the DOJ that they removed all sign-in buttons from their apps only because they didn’t want to adopt Apple’s button.
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