Apple Ordered To Remove Barriers To Third-Party Apps On iPhone And iPad
Credit: AI
Apple agreed to make changes to its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) mechanism in the EU following an investigation by the German antitrust regulator.
The company was accused of applying stricter rules to third-party developers without requiring similar permissions from its own apps.
There’s no doubt that the introduction of ATT was well-intentioned and a necessary response to some developers who were collecting and using vast amounts of personal data without truly informed consent. However, Apple has been accused of enforcing these rules on third-party developers by failing to display a similar prompt in its own iPhone apps. The company defended itself by claiming it didn’t conduct the kind of tracking that ATT should control, but the continued expansion of Apple’s advertising business has cast doubt on this claim.
Earlier this year, German publishers complained to the national antitrust regulator about Apple’s unfair approach, after which the company was forced to amend its ATT enforcement policy. According to the agreed-upon resolution, consent pop-ups shown to third-party developers must be “visually and linguistically neutral,” without offensive wording and symbols, which, according to the regulator, encouraged users to opt out.
Furthermore, third-party developers will now be allowed to combine Apple’s mandatory request with their own data protection notice, eliminating the need to go through two separate processes. Apple will have four months to comply, and compliance will be monitored for seven years. A company spokesperson stated that the changes are minor but necessary to preserve the privacy of the tool.
