The data protection authority in France fined Apple 8 million for illegally harvesting the data of iPhone owners.
It is an unusual sanction for the iPhone maker, which has faced less legal penalties over privacy than its competitors. Privacy is a selling point for Apple's products. Across the world, there are 40-foot billboards with that message. A growing body of evidence shows that Apple may not be the privacy guardian angel it is made out to be.
Apple failed to obtain the consent of French iPhone users before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminal. The search ads in the app store are called out by the fine. The company was fined over a million dollars by a French court.
An Apple spokesman said that they were disappointed with the decision and would appeal. "Apple Search Ads goes further than any other digital advertising platform we are aware of by giving users a clear choice as to whether or not they want personalized ads."
You don't think of Apple as an advertising company, but that could change in the future. According to Insider Intelligence, Apple will make an estimated $5.4 billion this year. There are reports that Apple is in talks to bring ads to Apple TV. The ad business is expected to grow very fast. Apple is in a great position to expand its ad empire after shutting down the Facebook advertising network.
Competitors deliver many of Apple's ads and the company likes to criticize them. The relevant data is collected by Apple with your consent. Apple ran into problems with the French.
If users wanted to protect their information, Apple's Personalized Advertising privacy setting was turned on by default, leaving them to take care of their own. The EU privacy law is violated by that. The violation falls under the ePrivacy Directive of 2002 and doesn't cross the Europe'sGDPR.
Users of the newer versions of the operating system were presented with a prompt before the advertising data was collected.
Nicolas Rieul, president of Alliance Digitale, a French digital marketing trade group, said, "Apple has finally been caught red handed, the same companies that have been telling us how their products and services are predecessors in terms of data protection are blithely violating the applicable law." The French authorities are invited to address the problem of misleading and deceptive advertising.
The company is facing more scrutiny for its privacy practices as it ramps up its advertising business. An investigation found that Apple collects data even when the company's own privacy settings are turned off. Alliance Digitale is pushing for regulatory action as well as class action lawsuits against Apple, according to Rieul.
Apple had enough money to lose $1 trillion in market value last year, making it the second company in history to do so. For the fact that Apple's European headquarters are in Ireland, the fine was not as high as it could have been.
It's a sign that Apple may face a less friendly regulatory future in Europe. Commercial authorities are investigating Apple for anti-competitive business practices, and are even forcing the company to abandon its proprietary charging cable.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
