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4 weeks ago
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France’s contention watchdog (Autorité de la concurrence) ordered Apple to wage €150 cardinal (~$162.4 million) aft uncovering that its App Tracking Transparency strategy allows the institution to maltreatment its dominance successful the mobile app market. In its decision, the authorization says the inaugural — which Apple pitches arsenic a mode to springiness users much power of their privateness — harms tiny publishers and “is neither indispensable for nor proportionate with” Apple’s extremity of protecting idiosyncratic data.
Launched successful 2021, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency inaugural forces developers to amusement 2 pop-ups asking for support to way users’ information crossed different apps and websites. Meanwhile, approving determination tracking with Apple’s ain apps requires lone a azygous pat — and truthful does opting retired of determination services connected third-party apps.
Many companies criticized the determination astatine the time, saying the request would harm publishers by making it much hard to way users for targeted advertising, which is 1 of the superior ways apps — particularly escaped ones — marque money. A study from the Financial Times recovered that Snapchat, Facebook, and X (then called Twitter) mislaid astir $10 cardinal successful gross arsenic a result.
France’s contention doesn’t instrumentality contented with the imaginable benefits that App Tracking Transparency has connected idiosyncratic privacy. But it argues that the inaugural makes utilizing third-party apps connected iOS “excessively complex” compared to Apple’s first-party ones.
“Although the instauration of ATT [App Tracking Transparency] has impacted each exertion publishers, the model has been peculiarly harmful for smaller publishers that bash not bask alternate targeting possibilities, successful peculiar successful the lack of capable proprietary data,” the bureau writes.
That said, the bureau is simply fining Apple for past usage of the strategy — not requiring the institution to alteration oregon dismantle it successful the future. “While we are disappointed with today’s decision, the French Competition Authority has not required immoderate circumstantial changes to ATT,” an Apple spokesperson said successful a connection to The Wall Street Journal. Apple didn’t instantly respond to The Verge’s petition for comment.
Along with the fine, Apple is besides required to show a summary of the agency’s determination connected its website for 7 days.
English (US) ·