Poland Opens Investigation Into Apple's App Tracking Transparency Feature | Potential Anti-Competition Tactic?

Urian B., Tech Times 13 December 2021, 10:12 pm

Apple has long been a subject of countless investigations over privacy but there are not many when it implements a feature that helps notify users when their data is being tracked. With that, Poland is launching an investigation into Apple's cross-app tracking policy, which tackles concerns of antitrust.

Poland is Now Investigating Apple for Its App Tracking Transparency

Poland's watchdog is now concerned that the company could have used its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) to directly hurt its competitors. Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection or UOKiK has recently opened an investigation towards Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature.

The new feature was introduced with Apple's iOS 14.5, according to the story by Engadget. The new feature prompted developers to add to their apps a question asking iOS users for their permission to allow the app to track them across other apps.

Apple Announcement on WWDC 2020

Apple initially announced this feature at the WWDC 2020 and it was first scheduled to launch along with the previous iOS 14. The company, however, subsequently delayed it in order to give developers more time for them to implement.

The particular feature was almost immediately deemed controversial with advertisers. One of these advertisers in particular was Meta which during that time was known as Facebook. To add, Facebook said that the feature would have potentially dire effects on its longstanding ad network.

Concerns Over Apple's ATT Regarding Antitrust

Currently, Poland's competition watchdog is now investigating ATT and the investigations is partly due to concerns of antitrust. Specifically, the regulator is contending that it does not mean that users' information can no longer be collected and that they will no longer be receiving personalized ads.

At the same time, the watchdog is saying that it also has concerns regarding Apple potentially introducing the feature to directly promote Apple Search Ads. To expound, the president of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, gave a statement.

What are the Motives of Apple Behind ATT?

As per Chróstny, during the course of their investigation, they want to examine whether Apple's actions could be aiming at eliminating competitors in the market for personalized ad services. He added that they want to examine whether the objective of this move may be to better sell their very own service.

As noted in an article by TechCrunch, this probe follows a recent study coming from adblocker Lockdown Privacy questioning the effectiveness of Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature. In addition, the study claims that the feature by Apple actually creates the illusion of clarity.

'No Difference' in Third-Party Trackers

Although the vast majority of iPhone owners have used the feature in order to opt out of app tracking, researchers still found out that the new ATT actually makes no difference when it comes to the total number of active third-party trackers.

As of the moment, the watchdog wants to examine as to what the true intentions of Apple are when it comes to their App Tracking Transparency feature.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian B.