Apple faces App Tracking Transparency antitrust probe in France
France's antitrust agency has officially launched its investigation into Apple's advertising data practices, with App Tracking Transparency the target for the regulatory probe.
In April, it was believed the French Competition Authority was preparing an antitrust investigation into Apple. On Tuesday, the Authorite de la Concurrence confirmed that it was going to investigate.
In a statement, the regulator confirms it has received a grievance about how Apple handles the sale and distribution of apps on the App Store. In a translation of the statement, Apple is accused of "having abused its dominant position by implementing discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions for the use of user data for advertising purposes."
Back in 2020, four online advertising groups in France made the complaint against Apple over the introduction of App Tracking Transparency. The program allowed users to have more control over whether apps could track them and report data back, which could be used by marketers for targeted advertising.
The IAB France, MMAF, UDECAM, and SRI all said Apple's changes didn't meet EU privacy rules, though Apple denies this to be the case. At the time, the authority rejected a request for "interim measures" to be placed against Apple, but that it would still look into the matter at hand.
With the opening of the investigation and an official notification to Apple, the regulator explains that it will conduct the probe, complete with written and oral observations, whether or not the grievance is well-founded. During this period, the agency "will not comment further on the practice in question."
In a statement received by AppleInsider about the investigation, Apple insists that it holds its advertising business "to a higher standard of privacy than it requires of any other developer by prompting users for explicit permission before delivering any personalized ads." Apple also has " previously received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates on the goal of ATT, including from the FCA and the CNIL," and the company "will continue to engage with the FCA constructively to ensure users remain in control of their data."
The App Tracking Transparency probe may not be Apple's only advertising issue in the country. Regulatory complaints have been made in the past over advertising tools offered by Apple, with allegations Apple doesn't subject itself to the same rules as third parties.
Apple has also been fined for numerous grievances, including an $8.5M fine over data privacy in iOS 14, and a $366M antitrust fine over alleged price fixing and abusing retailer economic dependency.
Apple's full statement follows:
Read on AppleInsider"App Tracking Transparency (ATT) gives users more control by requiring all apps to ask permission before tracking them. Apple, like all developers, is required to comply with ATT. Apple's apps do not show an ATT prompt because they do not track, meaning they do not link user or device data with user or device data collected from other companies' apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes, nor do they share user or device data with data brokers.
Additionally, Apple holds its advertising business to a higher standard of privacy than it requires of any other developer by prompting users for explicit permission before delivering any personalized ads. We have previously received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates on the goal of ATT, including from the FCA and the CNIL, and we will continue to engage with the FCA constructively to ensure users remain in control of their data."
Comments
"Right to Track"
"Free Tracking!"
"Privacy = Death"
"We will not not be tracked!"
"Track Together in Peace"
"Make Tracking Great Again"
"Save the Trackers"
Would-be invasive advertisers: Now it's time for you to step up and sue each individual user who chooses "Ask App Not to Track", for being opaque, subjective, and discriminatory in that decision.
MMAF - Mobile Marketing Association France
UDECAM - France's union of media consulting and buying companies
SRI - an organisation that represents the interests of management in the value chain of digital advertising in France
Government again taking its marching orders from greedy corporations accusing Apple of violating privacy rules, the world truly is upside down.
Hey, gubmint, stop listening to these yahoos, their interest is in monetising your citizens through violations of privacy and psychological manipulations (convincing them to buy things they neither need nor want) for their own bulging bank accounts exclusively.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/14/apple-att-germany-fco-antitrust/#:~:text=A major privacy feature Apple,FCO)%20has%20just%20announced%20it's
https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/11/apple-att-italy-antitrust/
https://www.webpronews.com/the-biggest-beneficiary-of-apples-privacy-crackdown-apple/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/apple-privacy-suits-claim-app-changes-boost-ad-revenue-1235317305/
https://www.ft.com/content/074b881f-a931-4986-888e-2ac53e286b9d
What allows Apple to claim they don't track their users is a uniquely Apple definition of what constitutes "tracking".
https://publicknowledge.org/apples-privacy-promises-are-undermined-by-its-app-store-rules/
https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/14/apple-att-germany-fco-antitrust/#:~:text=A major privacy feature Apple,FCO)%20has%20just%20announced%20it's
https://www.engadget.com/poland-investigating-app-tracking-transparency-feature-205834827.html
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-iphone-privacy-analytics-security-roundup/
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/11/14/apple-class-action-user-tracking-allegations/
https://mobiledevmemo.com/att-advantages-apples-ad-network-heres-how-to-fix-that/
I'm not the one who's been arguing that they gain an unfair advantage using ATT. Personally I don't think it's a settled question, nor if they do that's it's anything nefarious. You and I both accepted user tracking (Oops, it's not "tracking") as a condition of using their services.
FWIW Apple's definition of "tracking" differs from what most folks view it being. As long as Apple collected user data and analytics across Apple-owned services is not combined with data from outside 3rd party sources they claim it's not tracking. When Meta monetizes the data collected and combined from their users interactions with 1st party Facebook and Instagram I call it tracking, and you probably do too. But according to Apple it's not?
That’s what you’re asserting here. And it’s been common practice ever since barcode scanners and databases were implemented in retail.
I addressed those points in my initial post, quoting here:
"I'm not the one who's been arguing that they gain an unfair advantage using ATT. Personally I don't think it's a settled question, nor if they do that's it's anything nefarious."
Whether the grocer in collecting and monetizing my food purchase history is "tracking" me, I believe they are. That's the reward-card trade-off for a discount. But you don't think it's tracking? I don't think very many of us here would agree with you that it's not.
So does Apple benefit financially from ATT, and if so is it "fair"? That's what the various investigations are meant to determine isn't it? I'm not the investigator, but if you look at the links, you can see who is.
And all that over a question that at least four government agencies are attempting to answer. Of course you wouldn't have known this, nor would some other readers, if you hadn't taken issue with a two word question I asked: "Are they?"
Thanks for inviting me to comment further.
If that's what you are saying we are in total agreement.