[Arainach]

>freedom to use your phone however you want would necessarily compromise security and privacy for everyone.

For a large enough definition of "everyone", it would. "Everyone" has a Meta app installed. We've seen them pull evil tricks over and over to suck up data 24/7 - most recently running a local server on Android that their websites could talk to to bypass anonymization - and the moment a crack appears in the walled garden Meta will say "go install the FB/Instagram app from our app store with no privacy policy reviews" and a large enough definition of everybody will be much the worse for it.

[skeezyboy]

i take it you dont use desktops or laptops then?

[didacusc]

Most people on desktops / laptops interact with these services via a web browser, which has very limited permissions on the system. Not sure how you could control that tightly on a fully open iOS.

[fsflover]

So iOS must allow web apps.

[jmb99]

It does, doesn't it? Even if you stretch "web app" to mean "PWA" iOS supports them. And it definitely supports the literal definition of "web app" (i.e. loading a website in a browser that runs JS or whatever to perform its "app" functionality).

[fsflover]

According to this discussion, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39563618, they don't behave in the same way or have all features.

E.g., For support, the Progressive Web Apps will still need to be built on WebKit, with all that entails.

[Arainach]

I don't see the relevance of this question. Neither what I do nor whether I own a desktop/laptop impact the overwhelming trends of how society interacts with technology.

[mvdtnz]

> and the moment a crack appears in the walled garden Meta will say "go install the FB/Instagram app from our app store with no privacy policy reviews"

People keep saying this, but how do you explain the years and years of Meta/Facebook operating on Android without ever doing this?

[Arainach]

It hasn't been possible until very recently. The Epic case has still been going through the courts, so there's been no reason for Meta to show their hand before that's final.

They HAVE been finding every loophole, crack in the Play Store policies, or Android bug they can exploit to steal data.

[mvdtnz]

Alternative stores on Android have been possible since day one - there are several of them. That's not what the Epic case is about.

[troupo]

> Meta will say "go install the FB/Instagram app from our app store

This didn't happen even on Android. Why would it happen on iOS?