Another standard battle between giants, this time it is related to "Apple Login"

 On the morning of July 1, the identity authentication system organization OpenID recently questioned Apple’s “Sign In with Apple” confidential login method. Behind this is the two giants’ renewed fight for control of standards.

OpenID is a decentralized online identity authentication system, and it is also an organization participated by Google, Microsoft, PayPal, etc. In short, this organization customizes the standard of online identity authentication system. The reason for questioning Apple is that the latter proposed the "Sign In with Apple" login mechanism at the Global Developer Conference in June, which is not fully compatible with the OpenID standard.

At the June conference, Apple announced that it would add a new API development interface to macOS Catalina and iOS 13, allowing developers to add a "Sign in with Apple" button to their applications. Users only need to click it to authenticate with FaceID on the device, and Apple will help users randomly generate new accounts to log in without revealing any new personal information. In other words, Apple will help you register, and your name and password will be encrypted and generated by Apple to protect user privacy.

Previously, users either registered as App users themselves or used third-party accounts such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to log in (my country uses Weibo/WeChat ID more often). Apple's login method does not send personal information to applications and websites, which protects user privacy while also blocking their analysis of user data.

This is one of the reasons why OpenID has questioned Apple. Of course, another reason is the lack of unified standards.

In an open letter to Apple software chief Craig Federighi, OpenID said Apple's authentication feature "substantially adopts" OpenID Connect, a standardized protocol used by many existing login platforms that allows developers to authenticate users across websites and apps without requiring individual passwords.

But the company also believes that there are still some differences between OpenID Connect and Sign In with Apple, and this difference reduces the places where users can use Sign In with Apple, causing them to face greater security and privacy risks. This also puts unnecessary burdens on developers of OpenID and Sign In with Apple.

To resolve this issue, the Foundation asked Apple to resolve the differences between Sign In with Apple and OpenID Connect, which have been documented in the OpenID Certification Team's documentation.

This seems to be another battle over users and industry standards.

Of course, Sign In with Apple has also caused some controversy after its launch. After launching this feature in June, Apple required developers to provide the "Sign In with Apple" option at the same time if they provide other third-party login methods such as Google. In addition, according to the official design guidelines, Apple requires developers to place the "Sign In with Apple" button before other third-party login buttons-although this is part of its interactive interface guidelines, not a requirement for App Store review. But many developers privately believe that catering to Apple is the most reliable way to get App approved.