Apple Hit Over Privacy as US Tries to Undercut Antitrust Defense

The US Justice Department’s complaint against Apple Inc. singles out consumer privacy as a casualty of the iPhone maker’s allegedly monopolistic conduct, as the agency seeks to preempt Apple’s defense of its walled garden business model.

The lawsuit identifies several examples of Apple’s effort to allegedly maintain a smartphone monopoly that, according to the DOJ, degrades users’ privacy and security: allowing unencrypted messaging from iPhones to Android phones, prohibiting more secure or tailored alternative app stores, and setting Google’s search engine as the default in the Safari web browser rather than privacy-focused rivals, among other tactics.

The agency’s approach builds ...