Usually, it is Facebook or Google that are pinned for their questionable practices of collecting personal data.
Once is not customary: it is Apple's turn - which nevertheless prides itself on being a champion of privacy protection - to be questioned in this field by the France Digitale association.
The organization, which represents 2,000 French start-ups, filed a complaint on Tuesday March 9 against the apple brand with the National Commission for Informatics and Liberties (Cnil) on the grounds that the American giant would trample on the General (European) Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with its personalized advertising policy on iPhones.
Two weights, two measures ?
Concretely, since the last update of the famous smartphone at the end of 2020, the owner-user of iPhone is presumed to have consented to the collection of personal data by Apple for the dissemination of targeted advertisements within its own applications (AppStore, Stock Exchange, News, etc.).
To oppose this
,
you have to go through the privacy settings in the phone settings and disable the default collection of information for Apple ads.
Which would not be very "RGPD-friendly" according to France Digitale.
The association believes that Apple thus violates "Article 7 of the European regulation
,
which provides that consent must be free, specific, informed and unambiguous", summarizes Sylvain Staub, CEO of the start-up Data Legal Drive and lawyer specializing in data protection issues for the firm DS Avocats, contacted by France 24.
"We held Apple very high in our esteem. But it applies the principle of 'do what I say, not what I do'. It is a form of hypocrisy that disappoints us a lot", assures Nicolas Brien, director of France Digitale, interviewed by Le Figaro.
The association is all the more upbeat that Apple is preparing to deploy App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a new device to limit advertising "tracking" by third-party applications.
In the spring, the latter will have to obtain the consent of users before transferring personal data to partners, such as advertising agencies.
"What is criticized against Apple is to establish a system of 'two weights
,
two measures'
.
Third party applications will be subject to ATT while those which are affiliated with Apple will not be," said Sylvain Staub.
For France Digitale, it is pure and simple "distortion of competition".
Nay
,
retorts, very
upset
, Apple.
"The allegations of the complaint are notoriously false and constitute a poor attempt by those who trace users to distract and deceive regulators," reacted the brand to the apple in a statement.
It claims not to share the information collected with third parties, which would automatically bring it into compliance with the ATT.
In addition, Apple would not target each individual separately, but by group of at least 5,000 users (by age group, type of downloaded applications, gender
,
etc.).
Data collection would thus be anonymous
,
"which would mean that the GDPR does not apply", notes Sylvain Staub.
But still it is necessary to know, according to this expert, "to what extent it is not possible then to reindividualize the data, in which case the European rules are indeed applicable".
This is one of the central questions that the CNIL will have to decide.
The new "web proletarians"
But the offensive of French start-ups is also the expression on a national scale of a global fight for money from online advertising.
On the one hand, a growing number of countries are adopting regulations to reduce the possibility of monetizing what people do online.
Brazil and Japan were particularly inspired by the European GDPR for their own data protection legislation.
On the other hand
,
"Apple and Google are increasingly seeking to retrieve advertising information through the user account and no longer through cookies (small advertising tracking programs)
,
to the detriment of Facebook and small content publishers. ", emphasizes Paul-Olivier Gibert, President of the French Association of Correspondents for the Protection of Personal Data (AFCDP).
This is one of the reasons why Google has announced the gradual abandonment of third-party cookies on its search engine, but also why Apple has introduced the changes that irritate France Digitale so much.
The two giants believe to obtain all the useful data for the targeted advertisements through the accounts allowing access to their services, and to leave nothing but crumbs to those who only have cookies to remunerate themselves.
The fine words of Google or Apple on advertising practices that are more respectful of privacy would allow them above all to impose their conditions on other Web players, forced to beg for their share of advertising revenue.
"It would be a new dominant-dominated relationship", judges the president of the AFCDP.
French start-ups would not only fight for a handful of cookies, but also "not to become the new proletarians of the digital world in the service of Gafams", assures Paul-Olivier Gibert.
This is why France Digitale's action with the CNIL is important to him.
It will make it possible to know if the rules of the RGDP can block this evolution.
The French start-up association does not say anything else when it asks that giants like Apple be treated in the same way as the common Internet players.
"Not a week goes by without one of our members being checked by the CNIL or another European policeman. […] What use are European regulations if they are only applied to small players?" unworthy Nicolas Brien in Le Figaro.
It remains to be seen what the Cnil can do.
If some fines seem heavy - like the 100 million euros that Google has to pay -, they are not really for these behemoths of the Web.
But perhaps this complaint is also a way of drawing the attention of the French government to this problem.
After all, France is due to take over the EU presidency in the first half of 2022.
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