The search engine focused on privacy DuckDuckGo called on rival Google for “spying” on users after the search giant updated its flagship app to define the exact types of information it collects for personalization and marketing purposes.
“After months of waiting, Google finally revealed how much personal data they collect in Chrome and the Google app. It’s no wonder they wanted to hide it,” said the company said in a tweet. “Spying on users has nothing to do with building a great browser or search engine.”
“Nutritional privacy labels” are part of a new policy that came into effect on December 8, 2020, forcing app developers to disclose their data collection practices and help users understand how their personal information is placed on use.
The hint of DuckDuckGo comes as Google has been continuously adding app privacy labels to its iOS apps over the past few weeks, according to the rules of the Apple App Store, but not before a three-month delay that caused most of its apps not being updated, giving credence to theories that the company had stopped updating iOS apps as a result of the Apple application.
An analysis of application data collection practices by the cloud storage company pCloud released earlier this month found that 52% of applications share user data with third parties, with 80% of applications using the collected data to “market their own products in-app “and deliver ads on other platforms.
In turn, Apple updated its privacy site last week with a new “Labels” section that highlights the privacy labels for all Apple apps together in one place, making it easier for users to learn how Apple’s apps Apple handle your personal data.
Application tracking transparency explained
In addition, a future privacy update for iOS 14.5 will also require apps to request users’ consent before tracking them on other apps and websites using the device’s advertising identifier (also called IDFA) as part of a new framework called Application Tracking Transparency (ATT)
The IDFA (or identifier for advertisers) – created by Apple in 2012 – has traditionally been used by companies and marketers to track individuals between different applications in order to serve personalized ads and monitor the performance of their advertising campaigns.
For example, imagine scrolling through the Instagram feed and seeing a smartphone ad. You don’t touch the ad, but instead go to Google, look for the same smartphone you saw on Instagram, and buy it.
As soon as the purchase is made, the retailer records the IDFA of the user who purchased the phone and shared it with Facebook, which can then determine whether the ID matches the user who saw a smartphone ad.
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With the new changes, it is no longer possible for apps and third-party partners to accurately measure the effectiveness of their ads without asking users explicit permission to choose to be tracked using the identifier while jumping from one app to another, a change that has sparked Facebook and others that sell mobile ads that rely heavily on this identifier to help target ads to users.
In other words, while companies can still track users through their own services as a first party, they cannot share this information with third parties without users’ permission.
In what may be a sign of things to come, an analysis by mobile advertising firm AppsFlyer found that after several third-party developers integrated Apple’s ATT into their applications, 99% of users chose not to allow tracking.
“Technology does not need a large amount of personal data, grouped into dozens of websites and applications, to be successful. Advertising has existed and thrived for decades without it,” explained Apple CEO Tim Cook in a 28-year speech. January at Computers, Data Protection and Privacy Conference (CPDP). “If a business is built on deceptive users, on data exploitation, on choices that are not choices, then it does not deserve our praise. He deserves reform ”.
The development comes at a time when tech giants, including Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook, are undergoing regulatory and privacy scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe for having accumulated immense market power and their collection of personal information, leading to the formation of new data protection laws designed to protect user privacy.
On Wednesday, France’s competition regulator rejected requests from advertising companies and publishers to block ATT for antitrust reasons, saying the privacy initiative “does not appear to reflect an abuse of a dominant position by Apple,” but added which will continue to investigate the changes to ensure that “Apple has not applied less restrictive rules” to its own applications, signaling how measures designed to protect user privacy may conflict with online competition regulations.
It is important to note that Google has separately announced plans to stop supporting third-party cookies on its Chrome browser in early 2022, while emphasizing that it would not create identifiers or alternative tools to track users on the web.
Advertisers test new tool to circumvent ATT
But that hasn’t stopped advertisers from trying to circumvent iOS’s privacy protections, putting them once again on a collision course with Apple.
According to the Financial Times, the Chinese Advertising Association (CAA) has developed an identifier called China Anonymization ID (or CAID) that aims to circumvent Apple’s new privacy rules and allow companies to continue tracking users without having to rely on IDFA.
“CAID has the characteristics of anonymity and decentralization, it does not collect private data, it only transmits the encrypted result and the encrypted result is irreversible, which can effectively protect the privacy and security of end user data; the decentralized design allows users to developers to be more flexible Access to meet business needs, “explained a Guangzhou-based advertising technology company, called TrackingIO, in an article now removed.
“Since CAID is not dependent on Apple IDFA and can generate device identification IDs independently of IDFA, it can be used as an alternative to device identification in iOS 14 and a supplementary solution when IDFA is not available,” he added.
Although CAID has not yet been formally implemented, the tool is currently being tested by some of China’s largest technology companies, including ByteDance and Tencent, with “several foreign advertising companies have already applied on behalf of their Chinese divisions”. according to the report.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will give the green light to this CAA proposal, which is “currently actively communicating” with the Cupertino-based company, with the report stating that “Apple is aware of the tool and appears to have so far closed my eyes to its use. “
“The App Store terms and guidelines apply equally to all developers around the world, including Apple,” the iPhone maker told FT. “We strongly believe that users must have their permission before being tracked. Applications that disregard the user’s choice will be rejected.”