Following a years-long antitrust investigation by Germany’s federal competition regulator and others, Apple has agreed to modify the requirements for apps on its platforms that ask for consent to track the user across other apps or websites.
Regulators said this system, known as App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, favored Apple over third-party apps because Apple allows its own apps to use consumer data from its ecosystem without requiring a consent screen.
The new agreements with certain European competition authorities Don’t remove the need to prompt users, or when that prompt should be displayed. Instead, they allow app developers whose software is distributed in the EU to display an alternative consent screen that includes changed formatting, language, and the ability to link to “additional information” about why the app is seeking this permission, among other things.
Apple’s compliance involves more than half a dozen changes that attempt to make these ATT consent screens less scary for end users. This understand display them as full-page screens, not pop-ups; delete the word “track”; change the choice buttons to “Allow” and “Reject” instead of “Allow” and “Ask app not to track”; change colors and formatting; and more. Additionally, developers can offer users more detailed information via a clickable link, explaining how they use this data and why it is requested.
The iPhone maker said that, due to legal requirements, only the alternate version of the system prompt will be available for applications distributed in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Romania.
Users typically respond to consent screens by asking apps not to track them, hurting ad-supported businesses like Meta while boosting Apple’s. In short, apps that ask for such permissions do so because it allows them to display personalized ads, which generates more revenue, thereby helping the app developer make money.
Apple has argued, however, that these consent screens help protect consumer privacy, even as they allow its own apps to display personalized ads based on data they collect from its ecosystem.
The company said it will now allow app developers distributing in the EU to re-invite their EU users a year after the user’s previous choice on its ATT consent screen.
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