Guess not so private: Apple fined 8.5M for illegally harvesting iPhone user's data for ads

[suicidalfranco]

Summary

 'member when Apple pushed a new iOS version with the promise that no more will you, you iPhone owner, be followed? 

Guess it was all just a ploy to curb the competition and keep all that sweet juicy ad cash money for themselves.

France's data protection authority just fined Apple with an 8 million euro fine (around 8.5 in USD) for gathering user data without the users explicit consent.

 

Quote

 It’s an unusual sanction for the iPhone maker, which has faced fewer legal penalties over privacy than its Big Tech competitors. Apple makes privacy a selling point for its devices, plastering “Privacy. That’s iPhone.” across 40-foot billboards across the world. The French fine, though, is the latest addition to a growing body of evidence that Apple may not be the privacy guardian angel it makes itself out to be.

Apple failed to “obtain the consent of French iPhone users (iOS 14.6 version) before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminals,” the CNIL said in a statement. The CNIL’s fine calls out the search ads in Apple’s App Store, specifically. A French court fined the company over $1 million in December over its commercial practices related to the App Store.

 

A small fine given that Apple has gained from this change around 5.4 billion USD just in 2022,  and let's remember that when they introduce their new "privacy" scheme the ad industry lost 10 billion from just that change.

 

Quote

You may not think of Apple as an advertising company, but that may change in the near future. Apple does a tidy advertising business which will net an estimated $5.4 billion this year, according to analytics firm Insider Intelligence. Apple shows ads on a number of its services, including the App Store, and reports suggest the company is in talks to bring ads Apple TV. That ad business is expected to grow tremendously in the near future. After crippling the Facebook advertising network with a powerful iPhone privacy setting in 2021, Apple is in the perfect position to expand its burgeoning ad empire.

Many of Apple’s ads are targeted, just like the ones delivered by competitors the company is fond of criticizing. Apple shows you those targeted ads and collects the relevant data with your permission, though. But that’s where Apple ran into trouble with the French. 

 

My thoughts

well, well, well, look who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar...

 

Sources

 https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-france-ads-fine-illegal-data-1849950163

[DrMacintosh]

6 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

It’s an unusual sanction for the iPhone maker, which has faced fewer legal penalties over privacy than its Big Tech competitors.

This quote alone summarizes my thoughts on the subject. Apple is still better than any of the major players in the tech space when it comes to user privacy. Advanced Data Protections for iCloud is the latest evidence of that. 

[suicidalfranco]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

This quote alone summarizes my thoughts on the subject. Apple is still better than any of the major players in the tech space when it comes to user privacy. Advanced Data Protections for iCloud is the latest evidence of that. 

cause others don't hide it. Apple lies about it and acts in the exact same way as the other until they're caught red handed 

[DrMacintosh]

10 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

cause others don't hide it.

That's not what that means...

[suicidalfranco]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

That's not what that means...

They don't hide it, and they get scrutinize every time they sneeze.

Apple lies about it, They're consumer believe them, blindly, and they get treated they same way they would if their phone was an iZuck or a Pixel.

Just because they don't get caught has often as the others doesn't mean they're saints. Or are you going to explain to me how come the total ad revenue lost by Facebook and Google combined is almost exactly equal to the amount Apple gained in the same year?

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

Just because they don't get caught has often as the others doesn't mean they're saints.

Nobody said they were saints. I repeated the fact that they don't get fined or sued as often as other tech companies over consumer privacy violations. 

[suicidalfranco]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Nobody said they were saints. I repeated the fact that they don't get fined or sued as often as other tech companies over consumer privacy violations. 

Cause they don't get caught has often, not because they do it less

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

Cause they don't get caught has often, not because they do it less

That is your opinion. An opinion not supported by the available facts. 

[suicidalfranco]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

That is your opinion. An opinion not supported by the available facts. 

Show me the facts then

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, suicidalfranco said:

Show me the facts then

Apple does not get sued as much as other tech competitors over consumer privacy violations. 

[Holmes108]

6 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Show me the facts then

 

I don't know who's right, but I just want to point out that you can't prove a negative. Therefore the onus must be on the one making accusations.

[Fasterthannothing]

Apple is just a bad guy in a terrible disguise. I told people on this form Apple was doing this very thing months ago.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1451694-oracle-sued-over-collecting-data-on-5-billion-people-data-larger-than-google-or-facebook/?do=findComment&comment=15540483

[Blademaster91]

Apple doesn't get sued as much as other tech competitors because they're likely hiding it, as they are with this example, and Apple is known to bribe the legal system in order to screw over consumers.

Anyway good that they got fined, but fines for lying like that should be at least a few billion, as 8.5m isn't going to hurt a company like Apple at all.

[CTR640]

In other words: Apple is a wolf in sheep outfit. That's why they don't get caught easily and often. And also bribing/lobbying too.

Anyone who thinks Apple is saint must have his/her head really really effing deep in the ground, they can smell the oil in there lol

[Beerzerker]

3 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Apple doesn't get sued as much as other tech competitors because they're likely hiding it, as they are with this example, and Apple is known to bribe the legal system in order to screw over consumers.

Anyway good that they got fined, but fines for lying like that should be at least a few billion, as 8.5m isn't going to hurt a company like Apple at all.

Agreed - It's almost like a discount for the advertising they want to do now plus they have a user's recently updated info for near-future advertising (Targeting) use as well.

 

They knew the possibility of getting popped with a fine was real but also knew they'd make more than the fine itself would be by just doing it - So they took the chance, did it and the rest is history.

[AnonymousGuy]

An $8M fine is an indication that whatever the problem was was pretty trivial.

 

This thread meanwhile: OMG I TOLD YOU SO APPLE IS THE WORST COMPANY EVER!

 

Calm down on the hate train boners....

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, Holmes108 said:

 

I don't know who's right, but I just want to point out that you can't prove a negative. Therefore the onus must be on the one making accusations.

i'm not asking for proof, i'm asking for those so called "facts". and so far the best he has shown is one fluff phrase from the source article.

[vertigo220]

I don't doubt that Apple is the best for privacy, but only because they're the lesser evil, and Google, Facebook, et al are terrible, NOT because Apple doesn't also do stuff. I think it's a safe assumption that most companies doing shady and illegal stuff like this probably get away with it more often than not, so for every time they get caught, there's almost certainly other stuff going on that they haven't been caught on. This is, of course, conjecture, but it's based on history and what we've seen over and over from all of these companies.

 

What really irritates me and shows me how little someone actually knows is when iphone users/lovers talk about how great Apple is for privacy. Not that they're better, but that they're actually great. Sorry, but they're far from perfect, and acting like they are perfect doesn't change that, it just makes you ignorant (talking about people like this, and I've known a few, not anyone here).

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, vertigo220 said:

I don't doubt that Apple is the best for privacy, but only because they're the lesser evil, and Google, Facebook, et al are terrible, NOT because Apple doesn't also do stuff.

Because Facebook and Google, YOU are the product being sold. Apple is still the hardware is the product. Google and Facebook do not sell anything in big numbers to have that leverage, they rely on being users voluntarily handing that information over by using their apps on the devices.

 

Is Apple perfect? Nobody is perfect, and chances are mistakes were made years ago that are now only surfacing because laws have changed. If anyone actually read the article, 

https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-france-ads-fine-illegal-data-1849950163

Quote

France’s data protection authority, CNIL, fined Apple €8 million (about $8.5 million) Wednesday for illegally harvesting iPhone owners’ data for targeted ads without proper consent.

...

Apple failed to “obtain the consent of French iPhone users (iOS 14.6 version) before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminals,” the CNIL said in a statement. The CNIL’s fine calls out the search ads in Apple’s App Store, specifically. A French court fined the company over $1 million in December over its commercial practices related to the App Store.

 

“We are disappointed with this decision given the CNIL has previously recognized that how we serve search ads in the App Store prioritizes user privacy, and we will appeal,” said an Apple spokesperson. “Apple Search Ads goes further than any other digital advertising platform we are aware of by providing users with a clear choice as to whether or not they would like personalized ads.”

 

Now look at the site

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/iphone/iphf60a6a256/ios

Quote

Control how Apple delivers advertising to you on iPhone

You control how Apple delivers advertising.

Ads delivered by Apple may appear in the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. These ads don’t access data from any other apps. In the App Store and Apple News, your search and download history may be used to serve you relevant search ads. In Apple News and Stocks, ads are served based partly on what you read or follow. This includes publishers you’ve enabled notifications for and the type of publishing subscription you have. The articles you read are not used to serve targeted ads to you outside these apps, and information collected about what you read is linked to a random identifier rather than your Apple ID.

 

There's no deception or lies going on here. The problem is that they want the phone to ask before creating this data at all, which if the apps were designed to use this data, that might prevent the apps from actually working, creating likely more support overhead. Who knows. It's also likely it was in the Terms of Service that people don't read anyway.

 

Quote

With iPhones running iOS 14.6 and below, Apple’s Personalized Advertising privacy setting was turned on by default, leaving users to seek out the control on their own if they wanted to protect their information. That violates EU privacy law, according to the CNIL. It doesn’t cross the Europe’s GDPR, though; the violation falls under the more obscure ePrivacy Directive of 2002.

14.6 was released on May 24, 2021, the ePrivacy directive: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32002L0058&from=EN

Quote

(24) Terminal equipment of users of electronic communications networks and any information stored on such equipment are part of the private sphere of the users requiring protection under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. So-called spyware, web bugs, hidden identifiers and other similar devices can enter the user’s terminal without their knowledge in order to gain access to information, to store hidden information or to trace the activities of the user and may seriously intrude upon the privacy of these users. The use of such devices should be allowed only for legitimate purposes, with the knowledge of the users concerned.

Honestly, it's not enough to hide this stuff in the terms of service. Nobody reads it, and the terms of service should not protect a company from doing whatever they want with the user and their data. The language used in terms of services is often so obtuse that someone that is 18 years old, and has no interest in legalese, does not understand it at all.

[HenrySalayne]

17 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

An $8M fine is an indication that whatever the problem was was pretty trivial.

 

Since when does the maliciousness of an act scale with the fine a company has to pay?

Corporations do evil things and pushing the border of legality because the fines are laughablely small compared to their revenue. Let them pay a billion for each offense and they would think twice about it.

 

[Senzelian]

What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone ... and our servers!

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

 

Since when does the maliciousness of an act scale with the fine a company has to pay?

Corporations do evil things and pushing the border of legality because the fines are laughablely small compared to their revenue. Let them pay a billion for each offense and they would think twice about it.

 

"Let the punishment fit the crime"

 

There is no way to employ punitive fines on a company that is not based in the country. This is France going after Apple, not EU. And since that affected earlier iOS versions, that means all new devices are not on this version, and nearly all users with an iOS device upgraded automatically. The only people who didn't upgrade automatically did the smart thing and disabled auto-updates so the phone doesn't pull an update in the middle of your workday.

 

[Brooksie359]

20 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

An $8M fine is an indication that whatever the problem was was pretty trivial.

 

This thread meanwhile: OMG I TOLD YOU SO APPLE IS THE WORST COMPANY EVER!

 

Calm down on the hate train boners....

I am not so sure about that. The fines for breaking privacy laws in the past have been way lower than what companies even made breaking the laws meaning financially it makes sense to just break the law and pay the fine. 

[Dracarris]

3 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

Since when does the maliciousness of an act scale with the fine a company has to pay?

Since, lets see...

 

 

Always.

[HenrySalayne]

7 minutes ago, Dracarris said:

Since, lets see...

 

Always.

So Apple is by far the worst and most malicious corporation on this planet. Noted.