Why Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone have asked the European Union to ban the new privacy function of iPhones

European carriers are at war with Apple, and the throwing weapon is our own privacy. The operators refuse to stop tracking our data.

Last June, in the WWDC 2021 conference, Apple announced a new feature for iPhones that didn’t make too many headlines: iPhones will offer encryption for browsing through Safari.

That day, iOS 15, the new MacOS, new hardware, etc., were presented, and the news remained as one more functionality. But this was not the case with the operators, where all alarms went off.

The Telegraph newspaper has revealed yesterday, in a news that reaches us via our colleague Alberto R. Aguiar from Business Insider, that T-Mobile, Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone have asked the European Union to ban the new privacy function of iPhones.

Apple already offers in beta phase to iPhone users with iOS 15, encryption of web page browsing, through Safari.

It doesn’t really invent anything new, since it is a simple Virtual Private Network or VPN iintegrated in Safari.

The VPN have been around for years, and even private browsers like Epic Browser have been a free VPN for a long time.

But we all know the impact that Apple has. Activating this encryption in Safari is simple, and if you are used to using it you will more than 1 billion iPhone users, a huge amount of data They will no longer be traceable by Facebook, Google, cookies, adware … and also the operators.

In the letter to the EU leaked by The Telegraph, the European operators argue that this privacy function to the iPhone “will have significant consequences that will undermine European digital sovereignty“.

“In addition, it will affect the ability to innovate and compete in digital markets and could negatively affect operators“, explains said letter.

This encryption is already active in beta version, and these operators do not allow to use it, warning the user that “is incompatible with the use of mobile data“.

For a user, it is difficult to understand why prevent anyone from spying on the web pages you visit is “a hole in the European digital sobería“and a brake on”the ability to innovate and compete in digital markets “ of the operators.

In the end it all comes down to a war for data control. Internet users pay a small amount for the Internet connection, and 90% of the services and apps are free, because what is worth money is our data, which are massively spied on by everyone: operators, governments, advertising, social networks …

Operators use them to discover the services, websites, tastes and trends of users, and with them plan new services, distribution of telephone networks, products, rates, television packages, etc.

Apple is one of the few companies that it does not traffic or spy on that data. Make so much money selling devices and the App Store that you don’t need it.

And that’s why when defends user privacy by encrypting browsing data, the rest throw their hands at their heads.

These four operators, the most important in Europe, appeal to “European digital soberOthers, like the British Secretary of State to Priti Patel, to safety– If your browsing is encrypted, criminals and child pornography cannot be prosecuted.

Something tells us that this new feature of the iPhone will not last long, at least in Europe …