Irish regulator launches third investigation into Apple's privacy policy

Posted:
in General Discussion
A spokesman for Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has announced a third probe into Apple regarding privacy and transparency.

Apple faces third probe by Irish Data Protection Commissioner


The privacy investigation is examining if Apple has complied with the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation privacy law in relation to an access request from a customer. Which "customer" the complaint has been requested by is not specified.

The Irish DPC has launched 20 investigations into multinational technology companies, including highly scrutinized Facebook, who has eight probes, not including two into WhatsApp, a subsidiary, and one into Facebook-owned Instagram.

Twitter is also under three different investigations regarding Google, LinkedIn, and U.S. digital advertising company Quantcast.

According to Reuters, the investigation into Apple opened last year and focuses on how Apple processes personal data for targeted advertising on its platform, and whether it's privacy policy is transparent enough regarding the processing of said data.

Under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation law, Ireland's DPC would have the power to impose fines for violations of up to 4% of a company's global revenue or $22 million, whichever is higher.

Apple has also recently been targeted for a potential antitrust probe by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    The tl;dr should read “yet another government tries to force Apple to put a backdoor in for them”.  Regardless of what country you are in, please make sure you keep Your government in check. 
    lkruppberndog
  • Reply 2 of 7
    D_CMillsD_CMills Posts: 26unconfirmed, member
    The tl;dr should read “yet another government tries to force Apple to put a backdoor in for them”.  Regardless of what country you are in, please make sure you keep Your government in check. 
    Sounds like it has nothing to do with that. They are probing Apple's ad sales department.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,178member
    D_CMills said:
    The tl;dr should read “yet another government tries to force Apple to put a backdoor in for them”.  Regardless of what country you are in, please make sure you keep Your government in check. 
    Sounds like it has nothing to do with that. They are probing Apple's ad sales department.
    There's actually three separate ones and only one of those is strictly with regard to Apple's behavioral profiling and ads. The other two involve transparency in Apple's Privacy Policy Apple and the second whether users have access to ALL the personal data collected by the company in accordance with GDPR,  that one apparently prompted by a potential issue with an Apple customer's request. 

    IMHO I doubt there's a lot of meat here.  
  • Reply 4 of 7
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,275member
    Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram: 11 of the 20.

    Twitter: 3 more.

    Apple: 3 more. So that's 17 of the 20 all together.

    I wonder who the remaining three are about? Microsoft? Google itself?
  • Reply 5 of 7
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,178member
    chasm said:
    Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram: 11 of the 20.

    Twitter: 3 more.

    Apple: 3 more. So that's 17 of the 20 all together.

    I wonder who the remaining three are about? Microsoft? Google itself?
    Google has one. Microsoft too. Can't remember who the other is.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,178member
    chasm said:
    Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram: 11 of the 20.

    Twitter: 3 more.

    Apple: 3 more. So that's 17 of the 20 all together.

    I wonder who the remaining three are about? Microsoft? Google itself?
    Found the third. One open for Google, one for Microsoft and one for Quantcast. 

    If you're wondering why the Irish are so active in this their Data Protection Commissioner has been assigned as EU lead for investigations involving potential GDPR violations by the big US techs since for tax purposes that's where they chose to base their operations. 
    edited July 2019
  • Reply 7 of 7
    We shouldn't blindly trust Apple. They are collecting a lot of personal information. I decided to use a phone with /e/ OS, which is ungoogled android instead. It doesn't send data to Google or apple so I'm confident my data is private. e Foundation is doing great job creating this mobile OS.
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