Despite positioning itself as a pro-privacy tech company, Apple has been accused by iOS developers of behaviour that “should raise many concerns.” It all relates to Apple’s own apps, including the App Store, and the way usage data is allegedly shared with Apple even when the user has turned off analytics sharing and personalized recommendations.
In a follow-up by Gizmodo, the developers found that several other apps, including Music, TV, Books, the iTunes Store, and Stocks all sent data to Apple despite the privacy toggles. The site reports that most of the apps that sent analytics data shared consistent ID numbers, which would allow Apple to track your activity across its services, the researchers found.
This seems more of a question of intent than one of technology, given that the tracking was happening amid the implementation of high-profile pro-privacy measures. It’s hard to see why Apple would still have been harvesting usage data under iOS 14.6 and then backtracked in a later update without any obvious motivation.
Indeed, if anything Apple has shifted its business model in the opposite direction since the heady days when App Tracking Transparency was being trumpeted as the future of user privacy. The increasing prevalence of ads on the App Store–despite the store already being a phenomenal revenue driver for Apple–hints at a strategy focused on wringing out every drop of available income rather than prioritizing the user experience. And ads, of course, are far more effective when optimized with user data.
