After Regulator’s Investigation, Apple Will Make Changes to App Tracking Transparency Prompts in Germany ⇥ bundeskartellamt.de

From the Bundeskartellamt’s press release:

Under the commitments that have now been declared binding, Apple will align the consent prompts for its own offerings and for third-party apps much more closely. This involves removing possibly discouraging symbols and wording in Apple’s predefined requests for third-party providers. The design of the consent prompts will be neutral in terms of content, wording and layout. In addition, app publishers and content providers, such as media publishers, will be given more scope to explain to users what significance personalised advertising has for their offering and their business model.

The regulator helpfully offers an illustration of the differences between these prompts on the fourth page of its FAQs (PDF) about the case. There are many things they say could be deterrents in the App Tracking Transparency dialog, and I do not think Apple would deny that they are suggesting that users opt out of tracking. The definition of “tracking” Apple uses is self-serving, which would not matter so much if it did not also have a parallel desire to grow its advertising business.

A particularly damning finding in that comparison, to my eyes, is the way Apple puts “Ask App Not to Track” as the topmost button in the App Tracking Transparency dialog, but puts the option to “Turn Off Personalised Ads” at the bottom of it its own advertising prompt. Regardless of whether you believe one particular order is more suggestive of a primary and secondary action, the mere fact they are not in the same order is indicative to me of ill intent or, at the very least, sneakiness.

Apple had previously threatened to withdraw App Tracking Transparency in Europe because of financial penalties and what it called “intense lobbying” by European advertising companies. In a statement to 9to5Mac, however, it seems perfectly fine with making these changes.

One of the many changes Apple has agreed to make is that both prompts will contain “an accurate explanation of how data may be processed if the user gives their consent”. I am unsure what this looks like, but I hope it addresses a shortcoming of App Tracking Transparency, which is that it provides basically no information for users to make an informed choice about consent. What does it mean to allow tracking in App A compared to App B? This requirement may help clarify that. Then again, I also think it is grossly unfair to make users responsible for figuring out whether they should consent to persistent and invasive data collection on an individual level.