On 2 July, following Apple’s announcement of their new operating system, iOS14, which includes major changes to its Identifier for Advertisers (IFDA), the EPC joined a coalition of 16 organisations across the board of marketing and media to call for standards promoting interoperability and more predictable user privacy. The letter which is addressed to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is among other things urging Apple to:
provide reassurance of neutrality in its terminals, OS and App Store;
to ensure compliance with privacy frameworks alike GDPR and the TCF;
to respect publishers audiences without impeding on the direct relations between the two, and
to initiate an in-depth impact assessment on the industry, including review on the impact on publishers revenue.
Angela Mills Wade, EPC’s Executive Director said: “The latest changes to Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) are troubling for publishers, for users and expose a conflict of interest. Because the Apple pop-up is not interoperable with publishers’ own consent requests, and there is no way to customise the pop-up on publisher sites, there is a high risk that users will refuse consent as publishers won’t have a chance to explain the value of providing consent. Furthermore, there is no opportunity for publishers to request consent again in the future, even if the user grants consent via the publishers’ own websites. On the other hand, Apple’s own advertising services such as Apple Search Ads on the App Store fall outside the scope for their own advertising purposes. Given the dominance of the App Store, and publishers’ dependency on subscription sales in the mobile environment on the App Store, Apple’s conflict of interest and competitive advantage should be examined by competition authorities."
Follow this link to the letter, which is also found below.