A quiet legal battle over iPhone privacy just went Apple's way

The French government recently fined Apple over antitrust allegations. Despite that, advertisers were looking into getting Apple's App Tracking Transparency changed or removed; however, so far, it seems those efforts are not going to succeed, at least not in France. 

Court rules in favor of Apple's App Tracking Transparency 

Apple first introduced App Tracking Transparency in 2021. The feature allows users to opt out of tracking on iPhones for advertising purposes. 

As you'd suppose, advertisers immediately started seeking ways to undermine it. So, in 2023, a French advertising group took legal action, and the Cupertino tech giant was subsequently fined by an authority for being anticompetitive. 

The advertisers' coalition reportedly was after further penalties (not just the fine), but has apparently lost. The group believes that the ATT feature is ruining advertisers' ability to target ads to users, and this has resulted in a deficit in revenue that's almost 50%.

Advertisers' coalition and Apple

The coalition consists of French advertisers. Those include Alliance Digitale, IAB France, GESTE, MMA France, SRI, and UDECAM. 


Apple, in a statement about the win in court, said that the feature has been hailed by privacy advocates and data protection authorities around the world, including in France. The Cupertino tech giant also said that it will continue to support protections for users' privacy. 

Apparently, the coalition hoped that Apple would get more penalties for using its platform to block privacy-invasive tactics. However, the court has ruled in favor of Apple offering the choice to each user whether they agree with this or not. 

If you want to disable app tracking on your iPhone altogether, you can go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, and then Tracking. You can toggle the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" feature off, and you'll never get asked about it or tracked. This includes Apple's apps. 

Meanwhile, Apple doesn't rely on user data in its business models, so it goes unaffected by the lack of tracking. 

The investigation carried out in France also uncovered that some apps, like Meta's, have tried to avoid App Tracking Transparency, as well as exaggerated the results of ad performance. It seems that Meta is the company that's been hit the hardest by App Tracking Transparency since the beginning.

It is not known at the moment if advertisers would want to appeal the court's ruling or use other methods to try, and continue to fight Apple on the matter.

I'm fully on board with App Tracking Transparency, and I hope Apple never backs down

Personally, I'm a big fan of App Tracking Transparency. I like knowing that I have a clear choice over whether apps can follow what I do across my phone. It's simple, easy to understand, and it puts the control where it should be – in the user’s hands. If an app really needs my data, it can ask. If not, I'm happy to say no and move on.

I also don't feel bad about advertisers losing access to tracking data. My privacy matters more than perfectly targeted ads. I didn't buy a phone, so dozens of companies could quietly build profiles about me in the background. 

If App Tracking Transparency forces the industry to find less invasive ways to advertise, that's a good thing in my eyes. For once, it feels like users actually won something. And I hope it stays that way.