If there is a tech company that has always argued how important privacy is, it is surely Apple, which historically has never appreciated the idea that advertising content could invade its platforms. But you know, times change and the current economic situation of the big tech companies is leading more and more companies to compromise to counter the losses, including Apple itself.
It is recent news that the App Store now features more advertisements for some and people have been concerned about how the company’s policies might change. The latest change dates back to 25 October, when the Cupertino-based company inserted the new commercials in two of the most viewed sections, namely the “Today” tab and in the dedicated “You might also like it” tab, which contains suggestions based on each user’s download habits.
But the news that won’t please many is that two developers have found that Apple may keep track of everything we click while browsing the App Store. The two security researchers identify themselves as “Mysk” on Twitter and have revealed that iOS sends Apple a detailed log of user interactions with the App Store.
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The recent changes that Apple has made to App Store ads should raise many #privacy concerns. It seems that the #AppStore app on iOS 14.6 sends every tap you make in the app to Apple.#CyberSecurity pic.twitter.com/1pYqdagi4e– Mysk 🇨🇦🇩🇪 (@mysk_co) November 3, 2022
As shown in the short video shared above, the usage data that Apple would send includes details on screen interactions and the information would arrive in real time to Apple via a JSON file. According to the developers, the company has reportedly monitored user actions within the App Store since the release of iOS 14.6let’s talk about May 2021. The strangest thing is that just a month earlier, the company had introduced the “Tracking transparency” function of the apps with iOS 14.5,
Apple has not commented for now and in fact it is not known the type of use that is made with this data, however it should be noted that the tracking would still be active, as reported by the two developers. It must be said that since Apple began offering advertisements on the App Store, developers have access to performance statistics and therefore these data could be related to this novelty.
The situation is rather controversial, because if on the one hand Apple has done everything to not allow the tracking of iOS users by the advertising platforms of Google and Meta, on the other hand it would seem to act in the opposite direction when it comes to its interests. In the event that the news proves to be founded, the Cupertino company will defend itself by saying that the data collected will not be shared with third parties, however, an attitude that many will not like will remain.
And we conclude with a last element always unearthed by the duo of researchers, who affirm that App Store data is sent to Apple even when Personalized Ads is turned off.
As the link above tells you in detail, immediately after the arrival of the new advertisements on October 25, many users began to criticize the type of content they experimented with, which in many cases proved irrelevant or even ethically questionable (casino and dating apps , for example). The company responded immediately by activating a temporary suspension for content of this content, however a final decision has not been made on the future of these advertisers, who will certainly have paid (and not a little) for the inclusion of their commercials.
