According to 9to5Mac, Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Washington, D.C. yesterday, spotted lobbying against a newly proposed law called the App Store Accountability Act. The core of the proposed law is shifting legal responsibility for age verification from individual app developers to the app store platforms themselves, namely Apple and Google. Apple’s privacy head, Hilary Ware, laid out the company’s opposition in a letter to Congress, arguing the law “could threaten the privacy of all users by forcing millions of adults to surrender their private information for the simple act of downloading an app.” The company is framing this as a major privacy intrusion. But the article points out that this very argument is what makes the law so necessary, turning Apple’s stance on its head.
Apple’s argument backfires
Here’s the thing: Apple’s position is a classic misdirection. They’re presenting this as a binary choice between giving up your info or not. But that’s not the real choice at all. The real choice is between giving your driver’s license and a video selfie to dozens, maybe hundreds, of random developers you’ve never heard of… or giving it once to Apple. Which sounds more secure to you? Which sounds like a bigger “privacy nightmare,” as the article puts it? I’d argue it’s the former, by a mile. So Apple’s claim that the law threatens privacy is, frankly, backwards. Their logic accidentally makes the strongest possible case for centralized, platform-level verification.
Stakeholder impact: a mixed bag
For users, this would be a clear win. Imagine not having to jump through hoops every single time you download a dating app, a gambling app, or any other age-restricted service. One verification, and you’re done. The user experience improves dramatically. For developers, especially smaller ones, it’s also a huge relief. They wouldn’t have to build, maintain, and pay for complex age-verification systems, which is a significant compliance burden. They could just rely on the platform’s signal. But for Apple and Google, it’s a different story. This is about legal liability and cost. They don’t want to be on the hook legally if something slips through. They also don’t want to build and run a global ID verification service. Can you blame them? Not really. But that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.
Why Apple should embrace this
Look, I get why Apple is fighting it. Legal responsibility is scary. But they’re missing a massive opportunity. Privacy is their brand. They’ve spent years and millions of dollars telling us “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.” So why not lean into that? They could position themselves as the trusted, privacy-respecting gatekeeper. “Verify with Apple” could become a seal of trust, much like Sign in with Apple. They have the infrastructure, the security chops, and the brand credibility to do this better than anyone else. Fighting it seems short-sighted. Basically, the train is leaving the station on this issue. They can either get on board and drive it, or get run over by it.
The inevitable future
It seems like this is where things are headed, whether Apple likes it or not. Governments are increasingly looking at platform accountability for all sorts of things—content, commerce, and now age. The current system is fragmented, insecure, and annoying. Centralizing it at the store level just makes sense. Apple’s lobbying might delay it, but it probably won’t stop it. The smarter move? Get ahead of it. Design a system that’s so secure and private that it becomes the gold standard. Otherwise, they’ll just end up with a law they hate and a system they were forced to build under duress. Not a great look for the company that loves to talk about thinking different.
