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France fines Apple €150M for “excessive” pop-ups that let users reject tracking

(arstechnica.com)
250 points sebastian_z | 1 comments | 31 Mar 25 17:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.213s | source
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nottorp ◴[31 Mar 25 17:45 UTC] No.43537683[source]▶
Actually Apple were fined because they don't apply the same standard to their own pop-ups that allow users to reject tracking. On Apple popups you seem to need one click, while on 3rd party popups you need to confirm twice.

So the fine seems to be for treating 3rd parties differently from their own stuff.

They could make their own popups require double confirmation instead...

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ezfe ◴[31 Mar 25 18:39 UTC] No.43538242[source]▶
Right, but that second click isn't coming from Apple and they can't control it. The article specifically says that many apps feel like they need additional consent which means they have to request it through two channels.

If Apple doesn't feel like they need additional consent and/or doesn't use ATT-blocked systems then they don't need that.

This is stupid.

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leereeves ◴[31 Mar 25 18:44 UTC] No.43538299[source]▶
> The article specifically says that many apps feel like they need additional consent

Are they right about that? Does Apple provide the app with confirmation that the user consented, and if they do, is it legal to rely on that confirmation?

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gruez ◴[31 Mar 25 18:50 UTC] No.43538371[source]▶
You can definitely check on whether the user answered yes to the prompt, because if they declined you'll get a null (ie. all 0s) uuid. Whether app developers can rely on that as confirmation for tracking on their side is a purely legal question, and I wish the French government would try to resolve it on their side rather than going straight to fining Apple.
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Swenrekcah ◴[31 Mar 25 18:56 UTC] No.43538455[source]▶
As a European Apple user I welcome any and all fines that can be levied on Apple for their anticompetitive practices.
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ralfd ◴[01 Apr 25 07:57 UTC] No.43544011[source]▶
As a European Apple user I want politicians and bureaucrats leave the company alone!

They are not a monopoly, they never will be and won't have Microsofts 90% desktop market share, so let the damn market sort it out.

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Swenrekcah ◴[01 Apr 25 11:41 UTC] No.43545574[source]▶
The market does not work unless the rules of fair play are enforced, just like any other endeavour of humanity from sports to politics.
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1. ralfd ◴[02 Apr 25 15:53 UTC] No.43558091[source]▶
The rules France applies here are not fair and user friendly though:

https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/france_merde_decision_app...

> The bureaucratic hurdles they impose are to the benefit, not detriment, of the surveillance ad industry. That’s now proven out by industry groups — the ones ATT successfully tempered — successfully getting France’s regulators to penalize Apple. Users don’t know how to lobby government bureaucracies. What the Autorité de la Concurrence is saying, in so many words, is that two layers of consent is too much, and the only one that’s necessary is the one that advertising lobbying groups don’t object to, not the one they do (but which users understand and like).