The privacy-focused search engine, DuckDuckGo, called on Google’s rival to “spy” on users after the search giant updated its flagship app to explain exactly the types of information it collects for personalization and marketing purposes.
“After months of stagnation, Google has finally revealed how much personal data it collects in Chrome and the Google app. No wonder they wanted to hide it,” the company said. SAPS in a tweet. “Spying on users has nothing to do with creating a great web browser or search engine.”
“Nutrition labels on privacy” are part of a new policy that came into force on December 8, 2020, which requires application developers to disclose their data collection practices and help users understand how information is used. their personal.
The insinuation from DuckDuckGo comes since Google has consistently added app privacy tags to its iOS apps over the past few weeks, according to Apple App Store rules, but not before a three-month delay that caused most apps its. to go without being updated, giving credence to the theories according to which the company stopped the updates of the iOS application as a result of the Apple application.
An analysis of application data collection practices by 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 data collected to “market their products in-app” ”And run ads on other platforms.
For its part, Apple last week updated its privacy site with a new “Tags” section that highlights privacy tags for all Apple apps together in one place, making it easier for users to access Apple apps. manages personal data.
The transparency of application tracking was explained
In addition, a future privacy update for iOS 14.5 will also require apps to seek user consent before tracking them on other apps and websites using the device’s ad identifier (also called IDFA) as part of a new framework called App Tracking Transparency (ATT).
IDFA (or the identifier for advertisers) – created by Apple in 2012 – has traditionally been used by companies and marketers to keep track of people between different applications, to run personalized ads, and to monitor how they are. worked their advertising campaigns.
For example, imagine scrolling through your Instagram feed and seeing an ad for a smartphone. Don’t touch the ad, just go to Google, search for the same smartphone you saw on Instagram, and buy it.
After making this purchase, the retailer records the IDFA of the user who bought the phone and shared it with Facebook, who can then determine if the ID matches the user who saw an ad for the smartphone.
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With the new changes, it is no longer possible for third-party applications and partners to accurately measure the effectiveness of their ads without explicitly allowing users to sign up to be tracked using the identifier as they jump from one application to another. a move that has angered Facebook and others who 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 first-party services, they cannot share this information with third parties without users’ permission.
As a sign of the future, 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 doesn’t need vast personal data, combined across dozens of sites and applications, to be successful. Advertising has existed and thrived for decades without it,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. a January 28 speech at Computers, Conference on Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP). “If a business is based on misleading users, on exploiting data, on options that are not choices at all, then it is not worth our praise. It deserves reform.”
The development comes as technology giants, including Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook, have been subject to increased regulatory and privacy scrutiny in the US and Europe because they have gained immense market power and collected their personal information, leading to formation of new data protections. laws aimed at protecting user privacy.
On Wednesday, the French competition regulator rejected calls from advertisers and publishers to block ATT on antitrust grounds, saying the privacy initiative “does not appear to reflect the abuse of a dominant position by Apple,” but added that it will continue to investigate the changes to ensure that “Apple has not applied less restrictive rules” to its applications, indicating how measures designed to protect user privacy may be inconsistent with the regulation of online competition.
It is worth noting that Google has separately announced that it intends to no longer accept third-party cookies in the Chrome browser until early 2022, while stressing that it will not build alternative identifiers or tools to track users on the web.
Advertisers are testing a new tool to circumvent ATT
But that hasn’t stopped advertisers from trying alternative solutions to avoid iOS privacy protections, setting them back 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), which aims to circumvent Apple’s new privacy rules and allow companies to continue to track users without relying on IDFA.
“CAID has the characteristics of anonymity and decentralization, does not collect private data, transmits only the encrypted result, and the encrypted result is irreversible, which can effectively protect the confidentiality and security of end-user data; decentralized design allows developers to have more flexible access to meet business needs, “a Guangzhou-based advertising technology company called TrackingIO explained in a now-deleted writing.
“Because CAID is not dependent on Apple IDFA and can generate the IDFA-independent device ID, it can be used as an alternative to device identification in iOS 14 and an additional solution when IDFA is not available,” he added. .
While CAID has not yet been officially implemented, the tool is said to be currently being tested by some of China’s largest technology companies, including ByteDance and Tencent, with “several foreign advertising companies already applying on behalf of the divisions.” their Chinese ”, according to the report.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will give the green light to this proposal from the CAA, which is said to be “actively communicating” with the Cupertino company, the report claiming that “Apple is aware of the tool and seems to have so far closed eyes on its use “.
“The App Store’s terms and recommendations apply equally to all developers around the world, including Apple,” said the iPhone maker for FT. “We strongly believe that users should be asked for permission before being tracked. Applications that are found not to comply with the user’s choice will be rejected.”