Apple Delays Privacy Change Amid App Publishers' Concerns
September 03 2020 - 4:55PM
Dow Jones News
By Patience Haggin
Apple Inc. said it would delay until early next year a privacy
change that would invite iPhone users to keep their devices cloaked
from apps that want to track them.
Critics of the change, which had been set to go into effect this
fall, say it would hurt app makers by making it harder to sell
personalized ads. Facebook Inc., which has a business that
facilitates such ad sales on mobile devices, spoke out last week
against Apple's proposed policy, as did some online publishers.
"We want to give developers the time they need to make the
necessary changes," an Apple spokesman said.
When the new privacy prompt is introduced next year, iPhone
users will be asked on an app-by-app basis if they consent to
having their behavior tracked.
Apple announced the feature during its annual developers'
conference in June, with the intention to include it in the new
iPhone operating system to be released this month.
The announced feature had sent the digital-advertising and
app-publishing industries scrambling to prepare for the change,
devising new methods to target users with ads.
The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media, a coalition
of advertisers and ad-tech companies, formed in July in an attempt
to forestall Apple's change.
"This is welcome news given the potential impact on the media
landscape. This will allow for more time for details to be
understood and discussed among stakeholders," said Stu Ingis, a
partner at law firm Venable and PRAM's lead counsel.
DMG Media, operator of the Daily Mail and MailOnline, raised
concerns last month with the Justice Department that the
ad-tracking prompt would be anticompetitive, said a person familiar
with the matter.
The Information, a publisher of tech news, earlier reported that
Apple delayed the rollout of the privacy feature.
Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 03, 2020 16:40 ET (20:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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