TPAF’s App Security Project Responds to NTIA’s Latest App Competition Report
For Immediate Release Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235
February 1, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released its report, “Competition in the Mobile Application Ecosystem.” The report’s findings fail to acknowledge the real cybersecurity and privacy issues associated with opening up mobile device ecosystems.
In response, Patrick Hedger, TPAF Executive Director, offered the following comment:
“The NTIA report on app competition fails on a number of fronts. The report brushes off serious concerns about cybersecurity, privacy, and online safety broadly, taking legislative lip service on these issues at its word versus evaluating real world outcomes.
“Further, in discussing ways to ‘enhance’ competition among mobile apps, NTIA, like many antitrust hawks, fails to adequately consider competition and consumer choice at the hardware level. Policies that may benefit multibillion dollar dating apps and video game developers will cost the average consumer choice when buying their mobile devices. Making iPhones and Androids more similar reduces consumers’ options at the most important point of the market.
“Finally, NTIA’s recommendations are copies of heavy-handed policies currently pursued by the innovation desert that is the European Union (EU). These EU policies are protectionist measures meant to hamstring American tech companies and extort massive fines without any tangible benefits for consumers. The Biden administration should be standing up for America’s world-leading tech sector instead of endorsing policies designed out of jealousy of it.”
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Published on February 1, 2023