Apple gets a legal score in France for changes in the privacy of applications

“We cannot intervene just so that there can be a negative impact on companies in the ecosystem,” Isabelle de Silva, head of the French competition authority, told a news conference. “At this stage, we have not found any glaring examples of discrimination.”

The authority said, however, that it plans to conduct an in-depth investigation to determine whether Apple’s changes could be considered “self-preferential” by imposing stricter rules on third-party applications than on itself. This investigation could be extended until next year, Ms. De Silva.

Wednesday’s decision removes a source of doubt about Apple’s plans, announced last year, to require its smartphone and tablet apps to get users’ participation permission before picking up their ad IDs. , strings of unique letters and numbers that companies use to identify people. to show them targeted ads and monitor the performance of ad campaigns.

Privacy advocates and regulators have generally praised moves like those of Apple, saying consumers should have as much control as possible over how their data is collected and used. In recent years, a push toward greater online privacy has led to new laws in Europe and California. But companies in the online advertising ecosystem have said that these changes put them at a competitive disadvantage.

The companies behind the complaint, filed last fall through a group of trade associations, had argued that few Apple users would agree to follow up, making it difficult for apps to make money with personalized ads. and harm the companies that mediated their sale.

Damien Geradin, the competition lawyer representing the coalition of industrial groups, said companies were disappointed with the French decision, but were pleased that the authority would continue an in-depth investigation. “Apple is still unknown,” Geradin said.

Apple applauded the decision and said it would work with authority in its investigation. “We firmly believe that user data belongs to them and that they should monitor when that data is shared and with whom,” an Apple spokesman said.

The decision of the French regulator comes as technology giants, including Apple and Alphabet Inc

Google, Amazon.com Inc.

and Facebook Inc.

they are under increasing control in Europe and the United States, both for antitrust reasons and to treat smaller rivals, as well as for privacy reasons, to collect personal information from users.

Wednesday’s decision is the first major decision to highlight how this push to protect users ’privacy may oppose regulators’ efforts to safeguard online competition. This is because one of the most popular business models for technology is to target advertising to individuals based on their online behavior, and smaller companies sometimes accuse giants of using privacy as a basis. pretext to cut the data they need to do so.

Earlier this month, some companies complained that Google’s plan to stop supporting or using technology that tracks the web browsing behavior of people for advertising purposes would simply increase Google’s advertising monopoly because it already has so much data on users of its properties.

“There are more and more questions about competition over privacy and data protection,” Ms. De Silva, who sought advice from France’s privacy regulator, said he had backed Apple’s plans as good for users and had implemented them neutrally.

Mrs. De Silva said his authority could also investigate Google’s plan to remove tracking technology from its Chrome browser, similar to the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

Facebook has also attacked Apple’s plan, arguing that it is an abuse of dominance that would harm smaller businesses. But restricting Apple IDs would also undermine a strong point of Facebook’s business: how it collects data from mobile apps about what people do in apps, what they search for, what they buy, and more.

The complaint that led to Wednesday’s decision focuses on Apple’s decision to introduce its own language by asking users to choose, regardless of the directions already required by European privacy law.

The complaint also revealed how Apple was still able to collect data on iPhone users through the use of Apple applications, which gave the Cupertino, California company an unfair advantage over other applications when sells ads targeted to its own App Store. It is at this last point that the authority said it would continue to investigate.

At her press conference, Ms. De Silva said dominant companies have the right to set rules for their services, as long as those rules are not anti-competitive or unfairly enforced.

“We will be very vigilant,” Ms. De Silva.

Write to Sam Schechner to [email protected]