Apple under probe in Italy over alleged data privacy rules misconduct
Italy’s antitrust watchdog accuses US giant of abusing its market dominance
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After temporarily banningChatGPTand provoking a surge inVPN servicesdownloads, another big tech firm is now under scrutiny in Italy.
This time, it’sApplegetting into trouble, over allegedly abusing its market dominance against third-party app developers.
Specifically, Italy’s antitrust watchdog AGCM accuses the US tech giant of applying more restrictive and disadvantageousdata privacypolicies to non-Apple apps since April 2021. An investigation to probe such allegations is now open.
Italy’s probe into Apple’s ATT abuses
“The different treatment is mainly based on the characteristics of the prompt that appears to users to acquire consent to the tracking of their ‘navigation’ data on the web, and on the tools adopted to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns,” wrote Italy’s Competition Garante in apress release.
The agency explained that only Apple competitors are required to display the prompt to asking user consent for tracking in more relevant position compared to the one to deny the practice. This is also reported to employ misleading language about theonline trackingactivities.
Not just privacy issues, third-party developers appear also to be disadvantaged for the quality and details that Apple gives them out about their ad campaigns.
“Apple’s alleged discriminatory conduct may cause a drop in advertising revenue from third-party advertisers, to the benefit of its commercial division; reduce entry and/or prevent competitors from remaining in the app development and distribution market; benefit their own apps and, consequently, mobile devices and the Apple iOSoperating system.”
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AsReutersreported, the US giant has rejected such allegations arguing that it imposes the same privacy rules to all developers, including Apple itself. “We will continue to engage constructively with the AGCM to address any of their questions,” it added.
However, Apple isn’t the first time to be at the center of antitrust investigations in Europe.
Since the company launched itsApp Tracking Transparency (ATT)feature two years ago—around the same time the alleged misconduct began—a number of complaints and probes have been filed over alleged abuses.
In March 2021, it was aFrench startup lobbygroup to raise the alarm over Apple’s privacy dishonesty for then failing to get the support of the country’s antitrust watchdog. Similar critics on Apple’s ATT practices were also raised inGermanyandPoland, while in the same year, the UK raised concerns over the growing dominance of Apple’s market power overall.
Whatever the outcomes coming from Italy’s investigation would be, it’s clear that Apple is facing growing scrutiny in Europe - something likely to continue with theDigital Markets Act.
Chiara is a multimedia journalist committed to covering stories to help promote the rights and denounce the abuses of the digital side of life—wherever cybersecurity, markets and politics tangle up.She mainly writes news, interviews and analysis on data privacy, online censorship, digital rights, cybercrime, and security software, with a special focus on VPNs, for TechRadar Pro, TechRadar and Tom’s Guide. Got a story, tip-off or something tech-interesting to say? Reach out to chiara.castro@futurenet.com
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