Apple's strong-arming for privacy

Apple is leveraging its platform's market power to help users protect their privacy. The new "Sign In with Apple" service aims to offer apps and websites a privacy-protecting alternative to using Google or Facebook as a means of authenticating user logins. Apple will require iOS app developers that offer Google, Facebook or any third-party authentication to also offer Sign In with Apple. Apple defends the move as a benefit to both consumers and developers, noting that it's collecting no new data and only mandating the authentication be an option. Critics say that Apple may not be capitalizing on user data today, but its good intentions shouldn't be a justification for insisting its feature be used in order to offer an app on the platform it controls.