SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) – Apple says it will launch a new privacy control in the spring to prevent iPhone apps from secretly following people. The delay in its early launch aims to placate Facebook and other digital services that rely on data surveillance to help sell ads.
Although Apple did not provide a specific date, the general timeline released on Thursday means a long-awaited feature known as App Tracking Transparency will be part of an iPhone software update that is likely to arrive in late March or sometime in April.
After delaying the planned September introduction of safeguard amid a protest led by Facebook, Apple had previously said it would be released earlier this year. Apple released the latest update as part of Data Privacy Day, which CEO Tim Cook will greet during a speech scheduled for Thursday at a technology conference in Europe.
Apple is avoiding giving Facebook and other app makers more time to adjust to a feature that will require iPhone users to give explicit consent to be tracked. Analysts expect a significant number of users to deny this permission, since it requires their consent. Currently, iPhone users are often tracked by the apps they install, unless they take the extra step of entering iPhone settings to avoid it.
Facebook intensified its attacks about Apple’s new privacy control last month in a series of full-page ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other national newspapers. This campaign suggests that some free digital services will suffer if they cannot compile personal information to personalize ads. On Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioned Apple’s motives for the changes, saying the iPhone maker “has every incentive” to use its own mobile platform to interfere with rivals in its own messaging app.
“Apple can say that it is doing this to help people, but the movements clearly track their competitive interests,” said Zuckerberg.
Google, which also relies on personal data to power the Internet’s largest ad network, has not joined Facebook in its criticism of Apple’s upcoming tracking controls. Google profits from being the default search engine on the iPhone, an award-winning position for which it pays Apple about $ 9 billion to $ 12 billion annually.
But Google warned in a blog post on Wednesday that Apple’s new controls will have a significant impact on ad revenue generated from iPhones on its digital network. Google said that a “handful” of its iPhone applications would be affected by the new requirement, but did not identify which ones.
“We remain committed to preserving a vibrant and open app ecosystem, where people can access a wide variety of content with ads, with the confidence that their privacy and choices are respected,” wrote Christophe Combette, product manager at Google Group Ads.
Apple also released an 11-page report to illustrate how much apps can learn about their users on a daily basis.
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AP technology writer Barbara Ortutay contributed to this story from Oakland, California.