A group of conservative organizations is urging Congress to reject proposed legislation that they warn could “endanger the cybersecurity of millions of Americans.”
The groups, led by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), are opposed to the App Store Freedom Act (ASFA), which has been a longstanding priority of Rep. Kat Cammack (R., Fla.). In their letter to Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R., Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.), they call Cammack’s legislation “a bill that would require covered operating systems to permit apps to be downloaded from third-party sources, a process known as sideloading.”
“The ASFA’s fundamental flaw is its requirement that certain mobile operating systems permit sideloading and third-party app stores,” the groups wrote. Signatories joining TPA include the National Taxpayers Union, Center for a Free Economy, Digital Liberty, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, and R Street Institute. “These provisions would weaken one of the most important security features of modern smartphones. Today, trusted app marketplaces such as Apple’s App Store and Google Play invest enormous resources in reviewing applications, detecting malware, preventing fraud, and removing malicious software before it reaches consumers. Their security teams continually monitor for emerging threats, respond to newly discovered vulnerabilities, and protect users from increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals. Data shows that devices that prevent sideloading altogether fall victim to cybersecurity issues at far lower rates than those with more lax standards.”
Currently, Apple and Google have a near-duopoly on America’s app stores, which Cammack previously told the Reporter in an interview is an “antitrust” issue. “At present, you have Google and Apple acting as a monopoly, and they are doing everything they can to prevent that from breaking up,” she explained. While she believes that their safety protocols are insufficient, the coalition opposing her ASFA maintain the opposite.
“In a recent news release, Apple said it ‘evaluated more than 9.1 million app submissions [in 2025], helping to welcome over 306,000 new developers to the platform. In addition, the team rejected over 2 million app submissions — including over 1.2 million new apps and nearly 800,000 app updates — for failing to adhere to the App Review Guidelines,’” they wrote. “Moreover, ‘Apple terminated 193,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and rejected more than 138,000 developer enrollments.’ Also in 2025, Google ‘prevented over 1.75 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play and banned more than 80,000 bad developer accounts that attempted to publish harmful apps.’”
While Cammack believes that “sideloading” app stores is a solution, the organizations lining up against her legislation believe it is a problem.
“The dangers of sideloading are known and significant,” they wrote. “In Europe, where the Digital Markets Act (DMA) mandated sideloading, government officials in the wake of the mandate quickly ‘reached out to [Apple] about these new changes, seeking assurances that they will have the ability to prevent government employees from sideloading apps onto government-purchased iPhones.’ In the digital age, cybersecurity is a critical element of security generally — for governments, businesses, and individual users. Governments should not prevent users from accessing the cybersecurity features now commonly available on the market when they themselves find such features essential.”
