French antitrust complaint alleges that apple serves targeted ads without consent while preventing other services from doing so

[spartaman64]

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With the release of iOS 14.5, Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency policies require developers to get explicit consent before being able to share user data with third-party advertising networks. A new French complaint alleges that Apple’s own advertising network is not held to the same standard, as first reported by Bloomberg.

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Specifically, the complaint says Apple itself is allowed to use data from across Apple’s apps to serve targeted ads, by default. Apple’s system does not technically fall under App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rules because there is no third-party data sharing, but it is viewed by the complainants as unfair treatment nonetheless.

The essence of the complaint argues that if Apple truly cares about privacy, it should be up-front and transparent about its own ad policies just as much as it enforces App Store ad networks to do the same. However, the Personalized Ads system setting for Apple Advertising is enabled by default, and this fact is not clearly disclosed to users.

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For its part, Apple says that its personalized ads are designed to be privacy preserving and its generated user demographics cannot identify individuals.

Apple personalized ads defaulting to enabled is also the subject of a separate complaint, which believes the on-by-default policy is in breach of GDPR.

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As far as ATT is concerned, a group of apps from the same developer is allowed to share data between them. ATT dialogs are required only if the developer then wants to send that data off to a third party, such as an ad network. ... The frustrated complainants would like Apple to treat its ad network as a “third-party,” so it is subject to the same rules as the smaller players.

source: https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/09/french-antitrust-complaint-alleges-apple-allows-itself-to-run-personalized-ads-on-ios-without-getting-user-consent/

 

It doesn't seem like apple is violating ATT rules as per the last quote. But it would be better for them to be more transparent about their own ad policies since they want to market this as something they care about and want to protect the consumers from data collection etc. 

[dalekphalm]

It's been a while since I've done a bog-standard non-DEP Apple Setup, but doesn't iOS ask you about personalized ads during initial setup?

[Guest]

Maybe I'm dumb, but I havent seen any Apple ads? Are these the ones that come up in free apps?

[Fnige]

9 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

But it would be better for them to be more transparent

nothing goes better together than apple and not being as transparent as wanted

[TopKitty]

I own an iPhone 12 mini and I don’t see any ads anywhere.

[Vishera]

Apple's position on privacy is that they are they only ones who are entitled to collect your data,claiming that they are the only ones who can keep it safe.

I am not surprised.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

Priority and placement in Map/Store/Search/Music results, banners in free apps, etc.

I guess you can't see what you don't have. Haven't noticed any priority in search results though? I'm probably wrong and its really there though. 

[captain_to_fire]

22 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

Priority and placement in Map/Store/Search/Music results, banners in free apps, etc.

The only product placement from Apple that I've seen is during first time launching the Music app which will offer an Apple Music trial and the TV app which will offer a trial for Apple TV+. 

 

11 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

It's been a while since I've done a bog-standard non-DEP Apple Setup, but doesn't iOS ask you about personalized ads during initial setup?

It does show on initial setup and even when a user agrees, he/she can turn it off in the settings.

[Stormseeker9]

11 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

 

 

It does show on initial setup and even when a user agrees, he/she can turn it off in the settings.

Exactly this. Don’t see how Apple is doing anything wrong. (Eu citizen)

[dalekphalm]

17 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

The only product placement from Apple that I've seen is during first time launching the Music app which will offer an Apple Music trial and the TV app which will offer a trial for Apple TV+. 

 

It does show on initial setup and even when a user agrees, he/she can turn it off in the settings.

I don't see how they're going to win this case, then.

 

Perhaps there's an aspect I'm missing?

[Bombastinator]

On 3/9/2021 at 11:24 AM, spartaman64 said:

source: https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/09/french-antitrust-complaint-alleges-apple-allows-itself-to-run-personalized-ads-on-ios-without-getting-user-consent/

 

It doesn't seem like apple is violating ATT rules as per the last quote. But it would be better for them to be more transparent about their own ad policies since they want to market this as something they care about and want to protect the consumers from data collection etc. 

so this is claiming to not be an attempt to remove the rule, but apply it more broadly.  Hmmm... it’s not IMpossible in a way that I can see at least.  Feels kinda unlikely.  I’d want to see who is pushing it though.  Might have to sift through some cut-outs..  If it’s companies that would be discomfited by the TOS change, it’s NOT what it was ever about.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Bombastinator