Today is International Data Privacy Day, (Jan. 28), which is dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of data privacy among consumers and businesses. The “holiday” has been recognized in the U.S., Canada, Israel and 47 European nations since 2007. In previous years, it has been a marginal occasion — but in 2021, it got a bit of extra marketing in the form of a shoutout from Apple CEO Tim Cook during Apple’s quarterly earnings report.
The day happens to coincide with a major reset of Apple’s privacy policy, a fact that Cook mentioned during the earnings calls.
“Tomorrow is International Privacy Day, and we continue to set new standards to protect users’ right to privacy — not just for our own products, but to be the ripple in the pond that moves the whole industry forward,” he told analysts on Wednesday (Jan. 27). “Most recently, we’re in the process of deploying new requirements across the App Store ecosystem that give users more knowledge about, and new tools to control, the ways that apps gather and share their personal data.”
Cook’s remarks to investors came in advance of a speech on privacy he is set to give later today at the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels, according to reports. Apple’s new privacy upgrades — which, among other things, will require developers to seek permission to track iOS users for ad targeting — have had a few false starts. Scheduled for a September 2020 release, the upgrades were pushed to 2021 to give developers more time to comply. As of yesterday, that launch window seems to have moved to spring 2021, but more specifics are not yet available.
The new feature is called App Tracking Transparency. As of now, Apple requires iPhone owners to dig into their settings to disable ad tracking. The newest add-on disables the setting by default, and requires app developers to seek users’ permission to turn on the ad tracking features. Lack of compliance with the new rule could result in removal from the App Store.
App developers will still be able to use other types of information for marketing or personalization purposes, even if a customer opts to disable tracking, but that information cannot be shared with another company for the purpose of ad tracking. According to Apple, developers are not allowed to punish those who opt out by making their app less functional. Developers will also be barred from charging money or incentivizing users with in-app perks or giveaways to sway their decision one way or the other.
Any app that tries to replace the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers, the specific data piece that consumers must consent to share) with another piece of identifying information, like an email address, will be in violation of the opt-in requirement.
Apple’s big change has sparked a variety of reactions. Google has said it will remove certain advertisers’ tracking technology from the iPhone versions of its own apps and switch to a different kind, Google said in a blog post on Wednesday (Jan. 27).
“When Apple’s policy goes into effect, we will no longer use information (such as IDFA) that falls under ATT for the handful of our iOS apps that currently use it for advertising purposes,” Google said. “As such, we will not show the ATT prompt on those apps, in line with Apple’s guidance. We are working hard to understand and comply with Apple’s guidelines for all of our apps in the App Store.”
Facebook, on the other hand, has pushed back, arguing that SMBs will be hurt by the privacy change as they rely on Facebook’s ad network and powerful targeting tools to reach customers.
In a full-page newspaper ad and statements to the press, Facebook argued that Apple is in effect pushing rules on other developers to move business models away from ads and more toward subscriptions, which would earn more money for Apple.
“Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to preference their own,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call on Wednesday (Jan. 27). “This impacts the growth of millions of businesses around the world, including with the upcoming iOS 14 changes. Apple may say they’re doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitor interests.”
Meanwhile, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) will celebrate the privacy holiday with an event examining how the pandemic (and the year’s other major events) have reshaped the privacy landscape as consumers and businesses have relocated online.
“The pandemic has ensured that people all over the globe are more connected now than ever before. Consumers are generating more personal data through the use of devices, and the businesses that power that connectivity inevitably collect and store that same data,” said Kelvin Coleman, executive director, NCSA. “Data Privacy Day’s main objective is to be a yearly call to action — one that spurs discussion, reevaluation and awareness about how people can keep themselves and their data safe, and to show organizations that accountability, transparency and a commitment to fair and legitimate data collection practices will ultimately lead to enhanced public trust and better brand reputation.”
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