Apple has won a legal case in France defending its App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows iPhone users to control app tracking. Learn how this impacts privacy and advertising.
© A. Krivonosov
The legal battle over iPhone user privacy in France has concluded with Apple emerging victorious. Despite pressure from the advertising industry, the court refused to limit or reconsider the operation of the App Tracking Transparency function. This feature gives users the right to decide for themselves whether to allow apps to track their activity.
ATT was introduced in iOS in 2021 and immediately changed the rules of the game in the digital advertising market. Users gained a simple, understandable tool to refuse app tracking, while advertisers saw a sharp reduction in data access. This was precisely the cause of the conflict: French advertising associations reported their revenues had nearly halved and attempted to secure additional sanctions against Apple.
However, the court supported the company's position, stating that the right to choose belongs to the user, not to advertising platforms. Apple, for its part, noted that its approach to privacy has long received approval from regulators and rights organizations, including in France itself.
The investigation also revealed that some major developers and advertising platforms attempted to bypass App Tracking Transparency restrictions and inflated their advertising effectiveness metrics. This only strengthened Apple's arguments for the necessity of strict privacy protection measures.
It is currently unknown whether advertisers will file an appeal. But it is clear that Apple has managed to defend one of the key elements of its ecosystem, making control over personal data a matter for the users themselves.