Apple Privacy lawsuits accuse company of using aapp changes to increase ad revenue
Apple’s privacy campaign has driven its climbing ad revenue at the expense of competitors, especially Facebook parent company Meta.
Apple is being sued over claims that it misled consumers about privacy protections to gain an advantage over rivals while secretly collecting enormous quantities of data to increase advertising income.
According to two potential class action lawsuits brought against Apple on Thursday, the corporation continues to gather user data and “facilitates interception by third parties” despite claims made in a campaign praising its privacy features. Apple is charged with using the privacy settings to “secure its own ad revenue at the expense of other competitors like as Facebook,” according to one of the lawsuits.
Apple announced privacy rules in 2021 that mandate apps ask users’ consent before tracking their behaviour across websites and other apps. The business tells consumers that apps “can’t access the system advertising identifier (IDFA)” and “information that identifies you or your device, including your email address” are not permitted. The “App Tracking Transparency” feature has had a significant impact on the advertising sector. The upgrade to Apple’s iOS operating system, according to Facebook parent company Meta, will cost the business $10 billion in revenue by 2022. Similar, albeit less severe, revenue decreases have been observed by Twitter and Alphabet as a result of the change.
The complaints, filed in federal court in California and New York, allege implied contract breach, invasion of privacy, and unjust enrichment. The suit filed in California also claims unfair competition.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple said, “Identifiable information is never shared with third parties and is not used to track users across apps and websites. All data used for advertising purposes is disassociated from personal identifiers, and Apple Advertising operates on the basis of de-identified data.”
The suit accuses Apple of deceiving users into believing that their data is protected by turning off “Allow Apps to Request to Track” when it actually collects and exploits data, including browsing history, communications and personal identifiers. It points to a statement from Chief Executive Tim Cook saying, “Privacy is a fundamental right and we build it into all products and services at Apple. You should be in control of your data — not the highest bidder,” and an ad that states, “It’s your data. iPhone helps keep it that way.”
The complaint, which is included below, claims that Apple “knows that such assurances and promises about consumer user privacy and deactivation or termination of such tracking and interception are false and deceptive.”
Plaintiffs cite a study by security experts at the software firm Mysk, which purports to show that Apple’s privacy settings did not prevent the business from collecting data. For instance, the App Store continued to collect data about users’ real-time behaviour on the app in addition to ID numbers, information about the type of device being used, the screen resolution, the keyboard language, and how the user was connected to the internet. Additionally, it came to the conclusion that the Stocks app kept track of users’ lists of watched stocks, names of stocks viewed, and searches for for, as well as news articles users saw. The researchers said Apple collects similar data on Apple Music, Apple TV and Books, among other apps.
“Apple Mobile Device Consumers were, in effect, continuing to be spied upon, all the while, without their consent,” the suit says. “And Apple knew it.”