French hit Apple with antitrust complaint over serving personalized ads without consent
Apple has come under fire in France for its advertising system, with a lobbying group complaining its own ad-serving tool doesn't ask for user consent to offer targeted ads, despite Apple's policies forcing third-party iOS app developers to make the request.
Apple is in the process of enabling its App Tracking Transparency feature in iOS and iPadOS, which would require users to give consent to apps to track their activity to serve personalized advertising. However, in France, Apple's own tools are the subject of a complaint, claiming there are double standards at play.
According to lobbying group France Digitale's complaint to regulator CNIL filed on Tuesday and seen by Bloomberg, the advertising system Apple uses for App Store, Apple News, and Stocks app ads doesn't require any permission from users to start tracking for advertising purposes. The feature, titled "Personalized Advertising" uses user data to determine and show appropriate ads to different users.
This disparity between its own tools and third-party advertising mechanisms regarding tracking permissions is at the center of the complaint. Users are "insufficiently informed about the use and the processing of its personal data," said the group.
"Apple keeps the right to choose who is a partner' and who is a third party' in an arbitrary manner, a quality which may change over time, without the user being informed of such a change," the complaint continued.
In response, Apple called the claims in the complaint "patently false and will be seen for what they are, a poor attempt by those who track users to distract from their own actions and mislead regulators and policymakers."
"Transparency and control for the user are fundamental pillars of our privacy philosophy, which is why we've made App Tracking Transparency equally applicable to all developers including Apple," it added. "Privacy is built into the ads we sell on our own platform with no tracking."
A letter from Apple head of privacy Jane Horvath explained that with Personalized Ads enabled, Apple targets ads "by grouping together users who share similar characteristics such as apps downloaded, age, country or city of residence, and gender into segments, so that a given campaign or set or campaigns cannot identify a given user."
The regulator is expected to offer a ruling on the matter in the near future.
This is not Apple's only advertising issue in France, as in October 2020, advertisers and publishers filed a complaint with competition regulator ADLC over Ad Tracking Transparency. It reasoned that users would effectively be asked about tracking twice, due to the need to follow GDPR data protection rules.
The inbound Ad Tracking Transparency is also still receiving criticism from companies heavily dependent on advertising, over fears revenue could be lost over the change. FaceBook has conducted an ad campaign against the change, framing it as a battle to assist small businesses, among other complaints.
Not all companies have complained openly about Apple's policy. On March 3, Twitter CFO Ned Segal said the microblogging service felt confident about the privacy changes, and that it could help level the playing field with other social networks.
Apple is in the process of enabling its App Tracking Transparency feature in iOS and iPadOS, which would require users to give consent to apps to track their activity to serve personalized advertising. However, in France, Apple's own tools are the subject of a complaint, claiming there are double standards at play.
According to lobbying group France Digitale's complaint to regulator CNIL filed on Tuesday and seen by Bloomberg, the advertising system Apple uses for App Store, Apple News, and Stocks app ads doesn't require any permission from users to start tracking for advertising purposes. The feature, titled "Personalized Advertising" uses user data to determine and show appropriate ads to different users.
This disparity between its own tools and third-party advertising mechanisms regarding tracking permissions is at the center of the complaint. Users are "insufficiently informed about the use and the processing of its personal data," said the group.
"Apple keeps the right to choose who is a partner' and who is a third party' in an arbitrary manner, a quality which may change over time, without the user being informed of such a change," the complaint continued.
In response, Apple called the claims in the complaint "patently false and will be seen for what they are, a poor attempt by those who track users to distract from their own actions and mislead regulators and policymakers."
"Transparency and control for the user are fundamental pillars of our privacy philosophy, which is why we've made App Tracking Transparency equally applicable to all developers including Apple," it added. "Privacy is built into the ads we sell on our own platform with no tracking."
A letter from Apple head of privacy Jane Horvath explained that with Personalized Ads enabled, Apple targets ads "by grouping together users who share similar characteristics such as apps downloaded, age, country or city of residence, and gender into segments, so that a given campaign or set or campaigns cannot identify a given user."
The regulator is expected to offer a ruling on the matter in the near future.
This is not Apple's only advertising issue in France, as in October 2020, advertisers and publishers filed a complaint with competition regulator ADLC over Ad Tracking Transparency. It reasoned that users would effectively be asked about tracking twice, due to the need to follow GDPR data protection rules.
The inbound Ad Tracking Transparency is also still receiving criticism from companies heavily dependent on advertising, over fears revenue could be lost over the change. FaceBook has conducted an ad campaign against the change, framing it as a battle to assist small businesses, among other complaints.
Not all companies have complained openly about Apple's policy. On March 3, Twitter CFO Ned Segal said the microblogging service felt confident about the privacy changes, and that it could help level the playing field with other social networks.
Comments
It's actually a pretty good idea to have no ads at all as a perk of an Apple One sub. Apple is a for profit company so the idea of foregoing "free money" might not go over so well.
The statement you quote is 100% correct.
In the instances you refer to, your claims are not true.
"This" is an untrue claim. Apple shares no data externally and uses no third party tracking. The privacy features soon to be enacted have nothing to do with a developer sharing user data within their own apps. You need to not confuse them with Facebook who shares user data with almost anyone they think will help them make money.
Your are a little confused on the repair /charger issue too. All Apple devices are repairable. Warranty claims can only be repaired by Apple and that policy is standard in almost any industry. You can't really be serious about suggesting Apple should allow warranty repairs to be done by third parties. Almost a year and a half ago Apple announced a program to make a OEM parts available to authorized repair facilities and and third party in the repair business.
While there is no doubt their primary motive with the chargers was to increase profits, the decision does have environmental benefits. Less paper and shipping materials, smaller packages, more items in a shipment means less shipments means less fuel and pollutants and a smaller carbon foot print across every industry connected to a product from materials sourcing straight through to getting it on your doorstep. Why shouldn't they publicize that part of the decision?
"They should get back to making great products and services and jump off the preachy public attitudes." They never stopped doing great products and services. "Preachy public attitudes" is your personal opinion. Can you name a tech company that does less damage with their products and services? Closer to 100% sustainable energy than any other tech company.
When a problem or a supplier not behaving in a manner consistent with Apple's goals and statement is uncovered it is addressed very quickly in most cases. Apple is far from being perfect and living up to their goals 100% of the time, But show big tech who is doing it better.
I respect your right to your opinion, but like most, a big successful company presents a huge target to be criticized for anything and everything they do. Oops, you missed a spec of dirt so your entire company is to be considered dirty and unclean
Jobs was known for his philanthropy - but unlike Cook he kept it out of the public eye and didn't use Apple to virtue signal, because he could foresee the exact issue you describe. He kept Apple apolitical. Under Cook, Apple has become a political vehicle, whilst their products have become much more like they were in the mid 90's. Proprietary, expensive, and a growing number of SKUs, but with the added bonus that they're less repairable with each iteration. In almost every case repairing or upgrading a device is more environmentally friendly than buying new. People here say "but no one upgrades" without any source to back that up, but if Apple pushed upgrades over buying new, for sure the number upgrading would jump. But instead Apple makes upgrades more and more difficult without any real advantages to the consumer - but it does help out Apple's profits.
Apple's support for iOS updates is admirable, but it's unfortunate the same doesn't apply to Macs; Apple drops software support for perfectly serviceable Macs way before they should. My very usable 2012 iMac is stuck on Catalina, but it will run the latest version of Windows 10 just fine. I have an old 2009 Macbook too that will run Windows 10, but is stuck on High Sierra. Computer hardware is mature, the huge leaps we had in the late '90's to mid '00s don't happen anymore (apart from the M1, but that kind of jump was common in the late 90's), so the excuse that older computers are too slow just doesn't fly anymore.
People I speak to do seem to notice Apple isn't really practising what they preach quite as much as they could, which looks pretty bad for a company that is virtue signalling to others.
Apple shares data externally with service providers, partners, and others. Apple prohibits them from using that data for their own marketing, but the data is shared nonetheless. Do they all honor that prohibition? IDK. Apple's privacy policy is pretty straightforward, and for the most part, I have no issues with it.
My quote is about countering your claim that Apple shares no data externally. They do.
I believe Apple doesn't use 3rd party tracking to serve advertising or track you across sites. I also believe Apple does use 3rd party tracking to help fulfill services that may be used on the device. Services like subscriptions for example.
Apple's advertising platform does not track at all:
It does serve up personalized ads by default, but that's not the same thing.
That doesn't mean much of anything. Apple has to make this claim simply due to the fact that they might store user data on 3rd party servers, since Apple uses 3rd party cloud services such as AWS. Or that an email you send from Mail app has to send your email to an outside mail server. That disclaimer doesn't in fact mean they're handing over your personal data for other to dig through and use.
Except for the part that says "Apple may share personal data with service providers who act on our behalf, our partners, or others". iCloud data is encrypted, if what you claim that storing personal data on third party servers is the meaning of the data sharing clause, then they would say "encrypted personal data".
There are two types of tracking being discussed here.
1. Tracking - ad tracking and sharing data across apps and sites for advertising purposes. Apple says they don't do this.
2. Tracking - data tracking. The gathering, sharing and usage of customer data. Apple says they do this.
Unfortunately they're often conflated.
So basically Apple wants to do what they want with their ads, but they don't want third parties to advertise. Remember when Apple pushed iAd? They still use that technology for their own advertisements. I tried to use the IMDB app to look up a movie and the app was covered with an AppleTV+ ad. It would be nice if you could opt out of all Apple ads in their software and other sites or apps you visit or use.
Then read Apple's Sharing of Personal Data, and specifically this statement under 'Others': "We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for purposes of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary or appropriate. We may also disclose information about you where there is a lawful basis for doing so, if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or to protect our operations or users, or in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale."
Apple also includes this particularly disturbing statement, "You are not required to provide the personal data that we have requested. However, if you choose not to do so, in many cases we will not be able to provide you with our products or services or respond to requests you may have." So in other words, you have to agree to share your personal data with Apple, or not use any of their products.
It is intentionally vague enough to allow them to collect and share whatever and whenever they want. They even collect all your Health and Fitness data when you agree to use their apps. It is all there in black and white, so don't pretend they are not doing it because you have to agree to it to use their products and services.