Apple is Now Asking Users in Advance If Apps Can Track Them

Apple is Now Asking Users in Advance If Apps Can Track Them

Apple has now effectively implemented its long-awaited new privacy measure. From now on, users of iPhones and iPads will be asked: Do you allow this app to track what you do in other apps and on other websites?

 

This to the anger of some major app builders, especially Facebook.

The question that Apple is asking its users brings the company into conflict with other (tech) companies. They expect to lose ad revenue if far more users than now indicate that they can be tracked. One of its fiercest opponents even placed a full-page ad in some major US newspapers to protest against Apple.

In that ad, Facebook poses itself as the guardian of the small businesses. They would miss out on vital income from personal advertising and be hit so hard by the update. Facebook also started a website where small businesses can express their complaints about Apple’s new privacy policy.

Facebook itself naturally also feels threatened: the collection of user data and personalized advertising is the core of its business operations.

The demand that Apple users get comes from the latest update of the operating systems on iPhones and iPads. They should make Apple devices more privacy-friendly. Users gain more insight into which apps collect which data. Until now, although they could stop “tracking” by apps, they had to look for that option in the settings themselves.

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