Apple Fined $116 Million Over App Privacy Prompts (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0180444957
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/12/23/151231/apple-fined-116-million-over-app-privacy-prompts
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/news/849528/apple-italy-antitrust-fine-att-app-privacy
> The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) says that Apple abused its dominant app store market position by burdening developers with "disproportionate" terms around data collection that exceed privacy law requirements, compared to rules for native iOS apps.
>
> The fine specifically targets the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy Apple launched in 2021, which requires third-party developers to ask users for consent twice to track their data across other apps and websites. Apple's own apps can obtain this permission in a single tap. AGCM says that the burden of consenting twice led to a reduction in user consent rates for advertising profiling, thus harming developers whose business models depend upon revenue generated by personalized ads.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/849528/apple-italy-antitrust-fine-att-app-privacy
Look who's talking! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but an EU nation complaining about someone else's privacy rules being too burdensome?
That's laughable.
It's also stupid. Two whole taps? God forbid.
My counterargument would be that the users have already granted the first consent to Apple during the setup process, so the same number of consent prompts occur for both 1st and 3rd party applications.
Re: (Score:3)
It sounds fine to me; they should get no special treatment when they setup themselves as the gatekeeper store. The change should be either be like everybody else or allow permissions to be company based instead of app based.
This punishment is like a speeding ticket to Apple. Furthermore, if you give them an inch and at the discretion of a judge or simply their own judgement, it's just asking for abuse at some point. They are 1 bad CEO away from self destruction, being a US company (which has idiotic corp
We Need Privacy-by-Default Laws (Score:2)
Obviously, the fine mentioned goes in the wrong direction. Part of the problem is that people don't know what is happening to their information.
Wrong direction... (Score:2)
We should make Apples' own apps follow these rules, not loosen them for the other guys!
This is Silly (Score:2)
Look, I'd understand if this was something Apple was exempting their own apps from but they are following the same rules, only they don't do cross-app tracking so users never see the pop-ups form Apple apps.
The regulator here is arguing that by abstaining from cross-app tracking they are giving themselves an unfair advantage.
Other developers have the option of not doing that kind of tracking which would result in not having the pop-ups.
Re: This is Silly (Score:1)
Strongly agree. I also wonder if this ruling is motivated by creating a government backdoor as well.
A Backwards Conclusion (Score:2)
Personally requesting to collect data twice is better than once so Apple apps should ask twice too. All data collectors have prolifically abused the amount of data collected and the use of said data.