Apple bizarrely fined $162M for App Tracking Transparency after advertisers complained

Apple has been fined $162M by France’s competition regulator for the way App Tracking Transparency is implemented, stating that this is an abuse of the company’s powers. This bizarre ruling follows a complaint by a group of trade associations representing advertisers who are no longer able to access user data to serve personalized ads … App Tracking Transparency Apple offers a way for advertisers to track the apps we use in order to target personalized advertising. Personalized ads are far more valuable than generic ads, so developers who offer ad-supported apps will make more ad revenue if they collect this user data. Back in 2021, Apple started requiring apps to ask user permission to collect this data through a new feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT). Apps must now display a popup asking to allow tracking, and unsurprisingly a lot of people say no. Advertisers and developers complained Both advertisers and developers of free ad-funded apps complained loudly at the i ... Read full article.