DOJ antitrust lawyers question Beeper over Apple's iMessage hack
Lawyers from the Department of Justice have reportedly met with Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky as part of an investigation into Apple's alleged antitrust efforts.
Beeper Mini
Beeper is the tool that in theory allows Android users to use iMessage and its blue bubbles, without buying an iPhone. Over the course of December 2023 it has worked against Apple, eventually to a ridiculous extent, which keeps blocking its different hacks on security grounds.
According to the New York Times, the Department of Justice (DOJ) took an interest in the back-and-forth between Beeper and Apple. Citing two sources familiar with the issue, the publication says that the DOJ met with Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky on December 12, 2023.
Neither the DOJ nor representatives from Beeper would comment on the meeting. It's claimed that the DOJ's lawyers at the meeting are involved with the department's antitrust investigation into Apple, however.
There are no further details and it is not known whether the meeting was instigated by the DOJ or Beeper.
At one point, Beeper's CEO Eric Migicovsky has said that he was considering legal action against Apple, though he later appeared to walk that back as he stopped development of his service.
The New York Times also claims that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) must be interested in the case, though it has no source confirming this.
Instead, it notes that the FTC published a blog on December 21, 2023, in which it says that the "FTC will closely scrutinize any claims that competition must be impeded to advance privacy or security."
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Comments
However, I definitely think industry should work towards interoperability which has been a decades old problem and source of problems.
As for interoperability, it would be nice but that is not anticompetitive either. It is Apple's platform and they are paying for servers to run that platform. Those hacking into it are taking from those of us who do like the Apple Ecosystem and want them to innovate and not be stifled because someone else's feeling are hurt seeing green bubbles.
But it does add fuel to the ongoing DoJ antitrust investigation begun 4 years ago. That matters.
I suspect it was the DoJ reaching out to Beeper rather than vice versa, just gathering facts to add to the pile.
Messaging already is interoperable (word?). I can easily send messages to anyone. Does not mean they must have identical features and functionality. Back in the day, I could make a landline phone call to anyone who had a phone and a number. Some of those phones were cordless, some had built-in answering machines. Didn't matter as the call could still go through. Same here, messages can still go through regardless of device, OS or app being used.
The internet was built on standards. It could have gone the other way (and the risk is branching hasn't gone away totally).
Coding for the internet is also standards based.
ICT communications are standards based.
Where did AppleTalk go and why?
Can you remember the world before .pdf?
Standards are there to reduce compatibility problems for widely used services across multiple platforms.
Instant messaging falls squarely into the group that would benefit from standards based interoperability.
That is completely different to a proprietary service where you know exactly who your end client is. Messages doesn't fall into that group. Apple TV+ does, because it is not a 'general interest' category. The server side and client operations do not stretch beyond the ecosystem.
That is the most ridiculous statement ever.
It's not encrypted, but then neither are regular voice calls. Encryption isn't necessary to communicate. And given that governments/intelligence agencies have previously tried to get tech companies to give them a backdoor to all encrypted communication, it's ironic that they're now suddenly trying to champion the cause. Not to mention the fact that most people post the details of their entire lives on social media, without a care about who has access to it (so encrypted messaging wouldn't be anything they know/care about).
You can't send pictures/video and other media (EDIT: you can, just not at high resolution), but there are plenty of other ways to send them, including the aforementioned social media. Would it be more convenient to send them in an interoperable way using the default messaging app? Sure. And this will happen next year when Apple introduces support for RCS.
That would also be a text message.
The problem is that IM messaging is far more than plain text.
Regardless, Apple already promised support for the RCS standard (which isn't Google's specific implementation).
That problem will remain even after Apple decides to add RCS as backup. It cannot be E2EE for Apple Messages until the carriers who essentially run RCS agree it can. They know how to, but benefit more by not doing it. Still, RCS is safer than using SMS/MMS, so it's a plus if Apple uses it.