Apple positions itself as a privacy white-knight, but some claim that its own advertising ambitions are based on anti-competitive methods.
Last month, two developers going by the name of “Mysk” alleged that Apple was monitoring every tap customers made on the App Store, with no way of disabling the function.
A class action lawsuit was subsequently filed in California, claiming that Apple’s “promises regarding privacy are utterly false”.
Apple, meanwhile, has always opposed advertising on its platforms and has made customer privacy protection a core of its brand.
When it provided users the ability to simply prohibit apps from gathering data on them, it threw a wrench in the works of the surveillance capitalism system last year.
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That decision was a nightmare for many applications, from large ones like Facebook to fledgling ones that provide tailored ads.
Meta warned that the shift might reduce its income by $10 billion for the year in early 2022. This warning undoubtedly contributed to Meta’s falling share price (down 38 percent on the year); and last month’s decision to lay off 11,000 employees.
Mark Zuckerberg said last week that Apple’s approach was a “conflict of interest” since it was designed to undermine rivals.
