Apple Delays Privacy Change Amid App Publishers' Concerns

By Patience Haggin 

Apple Inc. said it would delay until early next year a privacy change that would invite iPhone users to keep their devices cloaked from apps that want to track them.

Critics of the change, which had been set to go into effect this fall, say it would hurt app makers by making it harder to sell personalized ads. Facebook Inc., which has a business that facilitates such ad sales on mobile devices, spoke out last week against Apple's proposed policy, as did some online publishers.

"We want to give developers the time they need to make the necessary changes," an Apple spokesman said.

When the new privacy prompt is introduced next year, iPhone users will be asked on an app-by-app basis if they consent to having their behavior tracked.

Apple announced the feature during its annual developers' conference in June, with the intention to include it in the new iPhone operating system to be released this month.

The announced feature had sent the digital-advertising and app-publishing industries scrambling to prepare for the change, devising new methods to target users with ads.

The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media, a coalition of advertisers and ad-tech companies, formed in July in an attempt to forestall Apple's change.

"This is welcome news given the potential impact on the media landscape. This will allow for more time for details to be understood and discussed among stakeholders," said Stu Ingis, a partner at law firm Venable and PRAM's lead counsel.

DMG Media, operator of the Daily Mail and MailOnline, raised concerns last month with the Justice Department that the ad-tracking prompt would be anticompetitive, said a person familiar with the matter.

The Information, a publisher of tech news, earlier reported that Apple delayed the rollout of the privacy feature.

Write to Patience Haggin at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 03, 2020 16:40 ET (20:40 GMT)

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