Germany’s antitrust regulator issued a press release saying it launched an antitrust investigation into Apple. Apple allegedly used anti-tracking technology to favor its own apps. The main thing here is the anti-tracking technology (ATT) function, which can help users refuse developers to track. Therefore, it is beneficial to help users better protect their privacy.
But regulators have found that Apple’s own apps can be tracked without users’ consent. Obviously, this kind of behavior has anti-monopoly regulatory requirements. To this end, the regulator announced that it would directly file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Apple has not yet seen a response to this issue.
Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, said of the proceeding:
“We welcome business models which use data carefully and give users choice as to how their data are used. A corporation like Apple which is in a position to unilaterally set rules for its ecosystem, in particular for its app store, should make pro-competitive rules. We have reason to doubt that this is the case when we see that Apple’s rules apply to third parties, but not to Apple itself. This would allow Apple to preference its own offers or impede other companies. Our proceeding is largely based on the new competencies we received as part of the stricter abuse control rules regarding large digital companies which were introduced last year (Section 19a German Competition Act – GWB). On this basis, we are conducting or have already concluded proceedings against Google/Alphabet, Meta/Facebook and Amazon.”
Apple has provided users with the ATT function since iOS 14.5. This feature is turned off by default to prevent developers from tracking user interests. How it works is that Apple assigns a unique identifier to the user’s device, and app developers and ad networks can read identifiers to see user interests. For example, when a user has visited a gadget-like website, a gadget-like ad would be a good advertising target for the user for the ad network.
Ad networks do know a user’s general interest but cannot attribute it to an individual. Therefore, this function can indeed protect the personal privacy of users. Of course, the reality is that most users do not allow developers and ad networks to track, and this feature is turned off by default, so it is difficult to track.
Without knowing the interests of users, the advertising network can only push random advertisements or advertisements
associated with the current page. So the actual ad-click rate is lower than before.
