Now, according to a new report, Apple's in-house tracking tool is under fire. A privacy group has reportedly filed a complaint against Apple's device identification service for advertisers.
A Vienna-based data protection group called NOYB (“None Of Your Business”) has filed complaints with data protection authorities in Spain and Germany, asking them to ban Apple’s “Identification Service for Advertisers” (IDFA). Bloomberg. Every iPhone Apple sells is tagged with a unique identifier that allows advertisers to track users' actions when using apps. The group argues that the service allows Apple and various apps to track users and collect data about their web usage without their consent.
Data protection & privacy: Changes were already planned under iOS 14
With our complaints, we want to enforce a simple principle: trackers are illegal unless a user freely consents," said NOYB lawyer Stefano Rossetti in a statement. "Smartphones are the most intimate device for most people and they must be equipped without trackers by default.
App developers have used IDFA in the past to target users with ads and track their performance across devices. Next year, however, Apple will make a change so that apps will have to obtain consent from customers before using IDFA in iOS 14. The change was announced in June along with iOS 14 and was originally supposed to go into effect with the release of Apple's latest mobile operating system. But the company decided to delay the anti-tracking feature until 2021 to "give developers time to make the necessary changes." The delay was only announced after major app developers and advertising networks like Facebook spoke out against the feature.
More data protection & privacy: Mozilla has already started a petition
Facebook warned advertisers on its own platform that the change could cause Audience Network publishers to see revenues drop by more than 50 percent. Apple is also facing an antitrust complaint from French advertisers who fear losing their revenue. Last year, Mozilla launched a petition calling on Apple to implement an automatic monthly reset of identifiers to make it more difficult for companies to build a profile of users over time. "It's like a salesperson following you from store to store while you shop and recording every thing you look at," the petition argued. "Not very private at all." It remains to be seen to what extent the privacy group will be successful with the complaint. AirPods Pro on special offer at Amazon – available now. (Photo by blackboard / Bigstockphoto)
