Apple should pay €6m to French data watchdog for tracking users without consent, says official

Apple tracked users without their consent and deserves to be fined €6 million, according to a top advisor to France's data privacy watchdog.  The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) launched an investigation into Apple after a complaint filed by France Digitale, a lobby group supporting startups, …

[elsergiovolador]

Business

So let's get this straight - you get tracker and some watchmink gets your compensation? Great.

It's like getting mugged and some organisation taking your insurance money.

Can anyone set up such a watchmink or is it only for the privileged?

[Falmari]

Re: Business

Isn't CNIL a French government body? The 6 million would be a fine for breaking the rules not compensation. To get compensation would require users to sue Apple.

That said I do wonder what happens to the monies from all these fines issued by such government bodies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Business

There's a FAQ for that: it goes to the state general budget. The article's title is wrong on that technical point, the CNIL decides the fine, but does not get any money itself. Fines have to be paid to the ministry of economy and finances.

https://www.cnil.fr/fr/cnil-direct/question/sanctions-ou-va-largent-lorsquune-sanction-pecuniaire-est-prononcee-par-la-cnil

[Falmari]

Re: Business

Cheers for the info

[iron]

Re: Business

Wtf is a "watchmink"?

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Business

Watch, a mink!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Business

Quango might be more recognised term

It was a thought I had too, the victims are the users, but some quango gets paid

[Anonymous Coward]

Broken model

This is where the problem lies:

"...users could stop companies tracking their online activity in apps by changing their privacy settings."

versus:

"however ... Apple's privacy policies did not extend to its own apps and services ... the iGiant tracks its own users without their explicit consent and doesn't give them the choice to opt-out."

The model for opting out of being tracked is broken. Because it uses a bottom-up approach where you essentially have to say "no" to multiple apps/services, multiple times. How about we just implement a top-level "do not fucking track me" option and anything running on the device has to inherit those settings? Of course that will never happen but this is the loop hole that Apple can use to get away with it. Even if they had something and knew it violated the law they could reasonably claim due to this technical constraint they were looking to address it in a forthcoming version of iOS since the law has to allow companies time to implement such changes.

The current model for this is totally broken.

It's the same with bullshit privacy / cookie policies on multiple websites. Generally speaking my opinion doesn't change depending on the site. So why not let me set this globally, once, and apply it to all sites via browser settings rather than having to configure it per domain/app/service?

[Potemkine!]

Not deterrent enough

€6 million ? Apple must pay more to buy paperclips.

== Bring us Dabbsy back! ==

[iron]

> The move hurt Facebook as well other smaller businesses and app developers since it prevented them from using the data to serve users with targeted adverts.

It didn't hurt this app developer or his employers. It only harmed those developers with lesser ethics who are willing to work for scum like FB and advertising agencies.