BRUSSELS — Apple on Wednesday (Dec 18) hit out at Meta Platforms, saying its numerous requests to access the iPhone maker's software tools for its devices could impact users' privacy and security, underscoring the intense rivalry between the two tech giants.

Under the European Union's landmark Digital Markets Act that took effect last year, Apple must allow rivals and app developers to inter-operate with its own services or risk a fine of as much as 10 per cent of its global annual turnover.

Meta has made 15 interoperability requests thus far, more than any other company, for potentially far-reaching access to Apple's technology stack, the latter said in a report.

"In many cases, Meta is seeking to alter functionality in a way that raises concerns about the privacy and security of users, and that appears to be completely unrelated to the actual use of Meta external devices, such as Meta smart glasses and Meta Quests," Apple said.

Meta Quest is Meta's virtual reality headset, part of the company's ambition to own the computational platform that powers virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) devices.

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