SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) – Apple says it will launch a new privacy check this spring to prevent iPhone apps from secretly hiding people. Delaying the early launch aims to calm Facebook and other digital services that rely on such data surveillance to help sell ads.
Although Apple did not provide a specific date, the general schedule revealed on Thursday means a long-awaited feature known as application 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 introduction of protection in September, amid a shout led by Facebook, Apple had previously said it would come out earlier this year. Apple has released the latest update as part of Data Privacy Day, which CEO Tim Cook will greet during a speech scheduled for a technology conference in Europe on Thursday.
Apple wanted to give Facebook and other app makers more time to adapt to a feature that will require iPhone users to give their explicit consent to be tracked. Analysts expect a significant number of users to refuse this permission once their consent is needed. Currently, iPhone users are frequently tracked by the apps they install, unless they take an extra step to access iPhone settings to prevent this.
Facebook has stepped up its attacks about Apple’s new privacy check last month in a series of full-page ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other national newspapers. This campaign suggested that some free digital services would be reduced if they couldn’t compile personal information to personalize ads. On Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioned Apple’s reasons 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 might say they’re doing this to help people, but the moves are clearly in their competitive interests,” Zuckerberg said.
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 future tracking controls. Google is taking advantage of the fact that it is the default search engine on the iPhone, a popular position for which Apple pays about $ 9 billion to $ 12 billion annually.
But Google warned in a blog post on Wednesday the fact that Apple’s new controls will have a significant impact on the advertising revenue generated by iPhones in its digital network. Google said a “handful” of its iPhone apps will be affected by the new requirement, but did not identify which ones.
“We are committed to maintaining a vibrant and open application ecosystem where people can access a wide range of advertising content, with the confidence that privacy and their choices are respected,” wrote Christophe Combette, group product manager for Google Ads.
Apple has also released an 11-page report to illustrate how many apps can learn about their users in everyday life.
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AP Technology writer Barbara Ortutay contributed to this story from Oakland, California.