Apple to Roll Out Privacy Measures Despite Facebook Objections
January 28 2021 - 12:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Higgins
Apple Inc. plans to roll out its extensive new
privacy-protection options for users over the next several months,
moving ahead with plans that have ratcheted up tensions between the
company and social-media giant Facebook Inc.
On the same day Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told
investors Apple poses a growing threat to its business, the iPhone
maker reiterated its intent to give users the option to limit how
apps track their digital footprints.
Apple users early this spring will see the new feature, which
will allow ad tracking only if consumers opt in once they receive a
prompt on an iPhone or iPad. (A beta version will be coming sooner
for test users.)
The software update to its mobile operating system would make it
so that Facebook or other companies would no longer be able to
collect a person's advertising identifier without permission.
Chief Executive Tim Cook is slated to speak Thursday on the
topic of data privacy at the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection
conference.
"Tomorrow is International Privacy Day, and we continue to set
new standards to protect users' right to privacy, not just for our
own products but to be the ripple in the pond that moves the whole
industry forward," Mr. Cook said Wednesday ahead of his speech.
Mr. Zuckerberg, whose company has been sued by the Federal Trade
Commission and 46 states over anticompetitive claims, sought to
cast Apple's privacy moves as a means to use its platform to put
Facebook at a disadvantage. Apple, too, has faced claims from tech
rivals that its practices are anticompetitive. Both tech giants
have denied wrongdoing.
"Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform
position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which
they regularly do to preference their own," he said. Apple didn't
respond to a request for comment on Mr. Zuckerberg's statement.
Late Wednesday, the spring timeline for implementing the new
privacy features was included in a new report online by Apple that
aimed to detail how personal data is harvested and commercialized
by third parties.
The coming change is part of a continuum of features Apple has
added over the years aimed at improving and protecting user
privacy. For example, the iPhone asks a user to give permission to
apps wanting to use the device's microphone, such as when Skype is
used.
Apple's ad identifier is a string of numbers widely used by
digital ad and data brokers that can be used to reveal where users
go online, insight that is useful for targeting ads.
Some in the app industry are worried that the opt-in requirement
will lead many users to reject the request, resulting in the
collapse of ad prices and creating new challenges for small
businesses trying to reach a targeted audience effectively.
A Tap Research Inc. survey found 85% of respondents said they
wouldn't allow an app to track them if given the choice.
Amid pushback, Apple in September announced it was delaying the
privacy change until early this year from last fall to allow
developers time to make necessary changes. The feature was
announced last June.
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 28, 2021 00:14 ET (05:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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