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Apple Inc (NYSE: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook warned on Tuesday that steps taken by policymakers to let apps circumvent the App Store would make the iPhones less safe.
Lawmakers have pushed Apple to make the iPhone more accessible to third-party developers to promote competition.
At the International Association of Privacy Professionals' summit in Washington, D.C., Cook said that the "policymakers are taking steps, in the name of competition, that would force Apple to let apps onto the iPhone that circumvent the App Store through a process called sideloading."
"That means data-hungry companies would be able to avoid our privacy rules, and once again track our users against their will."
In September last year, a federal judge ordered that Apple would be prevented from prohibiting developers from providing a link within their app to an alternative payment method.
The case was between "Fortnite" maker Epic Games Inc. and Apple.
Cook said, "Apple believes in competition. But if we are forced to let unvetted apps on to iPhone, the unintended consequences will be profound.....Ask policy makers to work with us to advance goals that I truly believe we share without undermining privacy in the process."
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