France fines Apple €150M for “excessive” pop-ups that let users reject tracking

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Lexus Lunar Lorry

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The system harms "smaller publishers in particular since, unlike the main vertically integrated platforms, they depend to a large extent on third-party data collection to finance their business," the agency said.
So privacy intrusion is fine as long as it's artisanal tracking from a mom-and-pop data broker (or more specifically, their mom-and-pop client)? This will probably be a bonanza for certain "small businesses".
 
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179 (188 / -9)
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Carewolf

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Fuck you, France regulators.

As far as ad-tracking goes, I’d support double, triple, quadruple and beyond chances to tell ad trackers to kindly go fuck themselves.
So you want to have to say no ten or twenty times? I dont get how that is better. You say no once, and that's it.
 
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27 (56 / -29)
So privacy intrusion is fine as long as it's artisanal tracking from a mom-and-pop data broker (or more specifically, their mom-and-pop client)? This will probably be a bonanza for certain "small businesses".
That's my issue with the EU in general, it seems they are creating thresholds that exempt their own companies, thus the reason many of us believe they are simply targeting American companies. I noticed that cars made in the EU don't have to open up their car software to alternative app stores....
 
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14 (74 / -60)

torp

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That's my issue with the EU in general, is they are creating thresholds that exempt their own companies, thus the reason many of us believe they are simply targeting American companies. I noticed that cars made in the EU don't have to open up their car software to alternative app stores....

Which US made cars have app stores?

Hmm actually, which cars made anywhere have app stores? I need to know so I can avoid them in the future.
 
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And then they wonder why people use ad-blockers, tracking blockers and the like.

I will just keep my dual pi-holes with recursive loookup as my home DNS along with UBlockOrigin in browser and Brave on my phone.

I have lived through all the BS from the ad industry from dial up days, none of you can be trusted to not want to bypass all the guard rails.
 
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24 (30 / -6)

DCStone

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Can anyone who has had experience with iOS apps that want to track you provide insight into what's actually going on to trigger the complaint? Is it that there's a "Confirm your choice" after the first "Allow/Deny" system prompt, or is it the third-party tracking embedded in an app is triggering it's own "Allow/Deny" system prompt? If they latter, then there's an obvious solution, but I doubt the smaller app developers relying on tracking are going to like it...
 
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39 (39 / 0)
Which US made cars have app stores?

Hmm actually, which cars made anywhere have app stores? I need to know so I can avoid them in the future.

GM have made their cars unpurchasable by moving away from a more useful platform that allows for CarPlay/Android Auto into a fully integrated Android Automotive platform. Gotta get people to pay for a subscription to use their car stereo to its fullest, you know?
 
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51 (52 / -1)

LukeSchlather

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What a blatant cash grab. This amounts to saying it's apples fault that app developers ask their own privacy consent on top of the baked in mechanism? That's entirely an app developers choice, sue them
No, the problem is that Apple's consent popup doesn't cover everything that apps are legally required to cover. The intent here seems like a good opportunity for Apple - they can implement a single API, ban developers from having their own consent popops, and you can easily have global opt-out and developers just get a payload that says you've opted out of everything the EU mandates you can opt out of.

The asymmetry of course being that Apple only has one popup for their apps, and it covers everything.
 
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102 (106 / -4)

faffod

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Small developers who rely on advertising don't need tracking. Huge advertising conglomerates want (again, not need) tracking so they can suck more money out with less effort. If we get rid of tracking these advertising conglomerates can go back to how they did business before they got addicted to the tracking meth.
France, do the right thing and block tracking so that we don't even get asked. Don't do what you're doing which is "think of the children" crap to protect the large advertising beast.

[edit speling is herd]
 
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57 (58 / -1)
Strictly speaking I think the headline is wrong.

France fines Apple €150M for “excessive” pop-ups that let users reject tracking​

Technically the fine is seemingly because Apple didn't impose on itself the same obligations to get consent to track until iOS 15. However, it appears that the ruling includes both the fine and an obligation to make tracking easier. So in practice it may be a distinction without a difference.
 
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25 (28 / -3)
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Steve austin

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So it sounds like the EU wants to prevent large companies (which are apparently all non-EU)
from using targeted advertising but EU member France (based on a complaint from one assume a French advertising association) wants to make it easier for smaller (one assumes French) companies to use targeted advertising. Consistency, anyone?
 
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15 (33 / -18)
Fuck you, France regulators.

As far as ad-tracking goes, I’d support double, triple, quadruple and beyond chances to tell ad trackers to kindly go fuck themselves.
Thank you, French regulators.

Instead of having to answer the same question two, three, or four times, the regulations insist that answering just once is enough, but that Apple must also adhere to those same standards, instead of unfairly preferencing itself by not allowing users to decline Apple tracking in the same way.

I’m really confused by the outrage over this.
 
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jhodge

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On the flip side, Apple repeatedly "reminds" me that the Tile app is tracking my position and keeps asking me if I want to disable that. Which is stupid, as the entire point of that app is to help me remember where my stuff is! I think that Apple knows this, but is using their privacy and security settings to sabotage their competition. Ask me once after installing, and never ask me again.
Disagree. People keep their phones for years, and it's way too easy to grant an app permissions and then have them persist beyond the point where they are necessary. For instance, if you stop using Tile(s) for locating things but forget to delete the app, you could be tracked for years with no benefit to you.

Periodically re-confirming permissions is a well-recognized best practice.
 
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yesno

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Thank you, French regulators.

Instead of having to answer the same question two, three, or four times, the regulations insist that answering just once is enough, but that Apple must also adhere to those same standards, instead of unfairly preferencing itself by not allowing users to decline Apple tracking in the same way.

I’m really confused by the outrage over this.
Apple doesn’t make apps do that. Sometimes apps themselves have to ask further questions to comply with their individual leal obligations—Apple has no way to know about that. The only way to comply with this ruling would be to allow apps to track without Apple’s pop-up.
 
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39 (45 / -6)