Apple has been under investigation by authorities in France for nearly two years over App Tracking Transparency, a privacy feature that lets iPhone users decide whether their activity can be tracked by advertisers or not. You’ve likely seen many of the ‘Ask App Not to Track’ pop-ups. Now, per a new Reuters report, the case is about to wrap up and looks set to end unfavorably for Apple.
App Tracking Transparency may soon be forbidden by French authorities
A two-year investigation into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature in France is expected to conclude in the next month. And the outcome doesn’t look great for Apple.
Foo Yun Chee writes at Reuters:
[The French regulator] is expected to issue its decision next month ordering Apple to halt its anti-competitive practice and will likely impose a fine too, the people said, making it the first regulatory veto against the ATT. French antitrust fines can be as much as 10% of a company’s global annual revenue.
So there are two main actions expected as the case concludes:
- Apple will be forced to disable the feature for French users
- The company may receive a fine too
As we reported when this investigation first started in 2023: “Apple is accused of abusing its dominant position by implementing discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions for the use of user data for advertising purposes.”
Apple provided the following statement to 9to5Mac during another ATT dust-up:
At Apple, we believe that a user’s data belongs to them and they should get to decide whether to share their data and with whom. App Tracking Transparency simply gives users the choice whether or not they want to allow apps to track them or share their information with data brokers. These rules apply equally to all developers — including Apple — and we have received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates for this feature.
Outside of France, Apple is also facing App Tracking Transparency investigations in Germany and Italy. For the most part though, concerns aren’t focused on the feature overall, but rather how it applies to Apple’s own apps.
In the US, the main pushback has come from a variety of companies— most notably Meta—rather than regulators. The feature has been blamed for negatively impacting advertising revenue.
What do you think of these concerns against App Tracking Transparency? Let us know in the comments.
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