Apple fined $162 million for hurting app developers with ‘excessively complex’ privacy options
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Summary
France’s Autorité de la concurrence is penalising Apple €150m ($162m) for what it calls the “abuse of its dominant position” by its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system.
It claims the system makes it harder for third-party apps to advertise on iOS than Apple’s own first-party apps, harming smaller publishers in particular and being “neither necessary for nor proportionate with” Apple’s goal of protecting user privacy.
Apple’s ATT initiative forced developers to gain explicit consent through two pop-ups to track users across apps and websites, impacting a broad range of companies including Facebook and Snapchat.
However, the regulator is not calling for any changes or dismantlement of the system.