France’s Authorite de la Concurrence says Apple can continue to its App Tracking Transparency tool in the country — but has to pay a fine.
Reuters reports that Apple has been hit with an 150 million euro (about US$162.4 million) fine by France’s competition authority for abusing its dominant position in mobile app advertising on its devices via the privacy control tool. However, the Authorite de la Concurrence hasn’t required Apple to change anything about its ATT tool, which seems kind of weird.
“While the objective pursued by ATT is not in itself open to criticism, the way it is implemented is neither necessary nor proportionate to Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data,” the regulator said in a statement. Reuters says that the Authorite de la Concurrence added that Apple’s ATT “particularly penalized smaller publishers,” arguing that the ability to use tracking data was more crucial for these publishers than larger ones.
Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency Framework for third-party apps with its updates iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5 and tvOS 14.5 in April 2021. ATT allows you to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers. Starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, apps must ask for permission before tracking your activity across other companies’ apps and websites.
Tracking occurs when information that identifies you or your device collected from an app is linked with information that identifies you or your device collected on apps, websites and other locations owned by third parties for the purposes of targeted advertising or advertising measurement, or when the information collected is shared with data brokers.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
