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iPhone user: "automatic and unauthorized installation"
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / MiS
The digital civil rights organization noyb has filed a data protection complaint against Apple because of an advertising tracking function.
The complaint is directed against the so-called Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), a unique identification number that companies can use to display personalized advertising to users of iPhones.
In practice, the IDFA is comparable to a “digital license plate”, the activists write in the complaint, which SPIEGEL was able to see in advance.
The unique identification number is created automatically as soon as a new iPhone is started for the first time.
However, this happens without the »knowledge or consent of the users«, according to the activists.
An employee of the data protection team at Apple was unable to answer a question the complainant asked Apple about when exactly he consented to IDFA tracking.
This emerges from the emails that are attached to the complaint and that SPIEGEL has received.
Apple is considered privacy friendly
Because the complainant lives in Berlin, the lawsuit was submitted to the Berlin data protection authority.
After Apple had not answered his questions, the complainant turned to the Austrian civil rights organization "noyb" founded by Max Schrems.
The lawyer Schrems became known because of his lawsuits against Facebook.
One of his lawsuits resulted in the European Court of Justice recently declaring the controversial data package “Privacy Shield” invalid.
Apple is considered a relatively privacy-friendly company among the large Silicon Valley companies.
This is precisely why, in the opinion of the activists, it would be a good thing if the company »stops the automatic and unauthorized installation of IDFA«, says Stefano Rosetti, who is responsible for the complaint as a lawyer at noyb.
"The complaint against Apple is not about the principle, we just think that their IDFA system is not compatible with the law," said Rosetti.
From a legal point of view, the activists' central argument is that IDFA tracking is comparable to the cookies that are created when surfing the web.
The Telemedia Act regulates the conditions under which user profiles may be created with cookies.
It was only in May that judges at the Federal Court of Justice ruled that the active consent of the user was always required when creating corresponding profiles.
Dispute between Apple and Facebook
A dispute broke out recently between Apple and Facebook over the IDFA system.
Because Apple originally wanted to obtain approval for the further processing of IDFA data from its users after the update to iOS 14, Facebook had warned of a drop in sales for the advertising industry.
(Read more about the background to the dispute here).
Also because of the headwind from the advertising industry, Apple finally postponed the change in the IDFA process.
However, the noyb activists do not believe that the changes Apple originally announced for iOS 14 will mean that IDFA tracking is compatible with data protection law.
"Our position is that these trackers shouldn't be created in the first place," says Rosetti.
This is how you can deactivate tracking by IDFA
The IDFA is created automatically when an iPhone is started up, but users can switch off advertising tracking later.
To
do this, call up
the
data protection
item
in the
settings
.
There click on
Tracking
and deactivate your consent for the item
Allow apps to request tracking
.
When Apple introduced IDFA eight years ago, the switch-off button for it was hidden far deeper in the then current iOS 6.
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