When Apple presented this autumn’s iOS and iPadOS upgrades at June’s WWDC event, a lot of time was spent explaining what the company intends to do to protect users’ personal privacy.
In addition to exposing apps that sneakily copy your clipboard, the OS updates introduce the requirement that developers ask for permission before tracking users’ surfing activities.
However, the Reuters news agency now reports that a group of European advertisers, some of which are supported by Google and Facebook, are strongly critical of Apple’s new privacy features; the advertisers claim they present “a high risk of user refusal” because apps have to ask for tracking consent twice. This, in turn, could lead to reduced revenue for developers.
Apple, however, disputes this and says apps have to ask for permission only once. Furthermore, the company provides a free developer tool that can be used to monitor the success of advertising campaigns without asking for permission. The tool uses anonymous aggregated data rather than identifiable user data, which is why it bypasses the need for consent.
One of Apple’s privacy measures involves developers informing users about how their data will be used when they install their apps. Apparently one in three App Store developers is lying to customers though.
The final public versions of iOS 14.0 and iPadOS 14.0 will be released some time this autumn. You can get them now by installing the beta.
This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation by David Price.