62 D AD TARGETING/ STRENGTHENING OF APP TRACKING TRANSPARENCY No interim measures against Apple, but the investigation continues on the merits Upon referral in October 2020 by associations representing the various online advertising actors, the Autorité examined the request for interim measures and issued its decision in less than five months. At this stage of the investigation, the Autorité considered that the introduction by Apple of a new feature in its operating system (iOS 14), that allows iPhone and iPad users to block the collection of their personal data, did not appear likely to constitute an abusive practice. However, the Autorité decided to pursue the investigation on the merits in order to ensure that Apple did not apply less restrictive rules to itself than to other app developers ("self preferencing"). In concrete terms, with the installation of iOS 14, iPhone and iPad owners are now able COLLECTION OF CONSENT: to opt out of having an app track them to STRENGTHENING send them personalised ads. THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA THE COMPLAINT OF ONLINE At the conference of 22 June 2020 intendedADVERTISING ACTORS for app developers, Apple announced that as part of its policy to enhance the protectionThe online advertising actors (media, Inter- of its customers’ privacy, it would imple-net agencies, advertising agencies, tech- ment a mechanism called ATT (App Trackingnical intermediaries, publishers, mobile Transparency), by September 2020. (Imple-marketing agencies) criticise Apple for mentation was subsequently postponedrequiring app developers to use the ATT until late March/early April 2021). prompt in order to access the IDFA identi- When an iPhone owner views an app down-fier. Collecting consent via the ATT prompt loaded from the App Store, a pop-up win-appears to be a condition for the ad tracking dow appears asking for explicit consent toof the user on third-party sites, which share personal data with third parties forwould then allow targeted advertising to advertising purposes. be addressed to the user. According to If consent is given, third parties can accessthese actors, Apple imposed unfair trading the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), whichconditions on app developers, which would identifies each Apple device and allows adbe an abuse of a dominant position. They tracking of the owner of the phone. Thisclaim, firstly, that the ATT prompt is redun- tracking of activity makes it possible todant and superfluous, as the obligation to implement targeted advertising, which isobtain consent already falls on app develo- the source of funding for many online appspers under the provisions of the GDPR and and sites. the e-Privacy Directive. I G I T A L •DIGITAL•DIGTROPER LAUNNA 0202 – erutuf evitisop erom a gniretsoF ITAL •