Apple Faces German Antitrust Probe for iOS Privacy Changes

Apple Faces German Antitrust Probe for iOS Privacy Changes(macrumors.com)

12 points by marketingtech 3 years ago | 4 comments

The antitrust probe is not strictly regarding the privacy changes themselves, but that Apple did not subject themselves to the same new policy and opt-in UI. They've preferenced their own services and built a multi-billion dollar ad network using data that's dark pattern opted-in for themselves and dark pattern opted-out for third-parties.

In isolation, this may seem like a standard competitive advantage for a platform, but Apple has drawn attention to their own power by wiping out nearly a trillion dollars of public market cap from other tech and ecommerce companies with the change.

Not coincidentally, Apple quietly announced that they are relaxing some of their privacy restrictions during WWDC last week.

jshzglr 3 years ago | |

Exactly what apps/services are you referring to that are "opt-in"?

marketingtech 3 years ago | | |

These screenshots show the difference: https://twitter.com/rohankatyal29/status/1440726365402120192

Apple enables system wide tracking of all app usage, installs, and in-app purchases for themselves with a prompt to "Turn On Personalized Ads" while third-parties must show a prompt that says "Ask App Not To Track". For third-party ads to operate effectively, you need to reject the "Ask App Not To Track" prompt in both the app that displayed the ad and the app that was being advertised.