Apple on Tuesday said the company would remove apps from the App Store if developers do not comply with the upcoming “App Tracking Transparency” privacy feature allowing users to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications.
Some tech companies and advertisers, such as Facebook, have criticised the planned change, saying it could hurt smaller developers such as gaming companies disproportionately.
But Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, said users should know when they are being tracked across different apps and websites. “Early next year, we’ll begin requiring all apps that want to do that to obtain their users’ explicit permission, and developers who fail to meet that standard can have their apps taken down from the App Store,” he said at the European Data Protection and Privacy Conference.
The new feature will require a pop-up notification saying the app “would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies.” Digital advertising firms expect here most users will decline to grant that permission.
“When invasive tracking is your business model, you tend not to welcome transparency and customer choice,” Federighi said, rejecting criticism of the new feature. “We need the world to see those arguments for what they are: a brazen attempt to maintain the privacy-invasive status quo.”
MacDailyNews Take: Bravo, Hair Force One and Apple! The users are Apple’s focus, not privacy-trampling Facebook, Google, and other ad-trackers!
It’s so true, we never had the option of stopping the tracking in the early days of the internet, and here we are in 2020 and we’ve become conditioned to it just being this way. Thankfully there is company with ethics, morals and integrity. Otherwise we would all be living in a giant advertising cage. Cannot applaud Apple enough…
Good, stay long Apple….
I hope Apple gets more rigorous with this focus. Besides personal appreciation, to be a stalwart with this feature, it’s worth billions, going forward.