US Lawmakers Call For Investigations Into Apple And Google’s Advertising IDs On iOS And Android 

Four US congressmen have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to initiate an investigation into Apple and Alphabet (owned by Google). Companies are accused of committing dishonest and misleading actions to collect and subsequently sell personal data of users of iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

According to lawmakers, Apple and Google “deliberately facilitated malicious practices by embedding advertising identifiers into their mobile operating systems for tracking purposes.” These identifiers, the congressmen write, are only formally anonymous: platform developers can easily identify the identities of the relevant users just by looking at where these people are every night.

Both developers have already taken steps to limit the collection of user data: Apple updated the iOS privacy policy last year, and Google is set to add privacy settings to Android in the foreseeable future. In Apple’s case, the measure has been so effective that Meta alone is poised to lose about $10 billion in ad revenue this year.