French Privacy Regulator Slaps Apple With €8M Fine — Retail Bum

French data privacy regulator CNIL has fined Apple €8 million for using customer data for advertising purposes without user consent.

[Apple] did not “obtain the consent of French iPhone users (iOS 14.6 version) before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminals,” CNIL said in a statement.

The fine, which is €2 million higher than what was initially proposed in December 2022, marks the conclusion of an investigation that began in March 2021 after startup lobby France Digitale filed a complaint against Apple for not complying with data protection rules. It also represents a rare misstep for Apple, a company that has built its image as a consumer privacy champion.

It is worth noting that Apple has remained in compliance since it rolled out iOS 15 in September 2021, Politico reported. Last year, the tech giant also rolled out an App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to choose whether they want to be tracked by third parties for targeted ads.

An Apple spokesperson said the company was disappointed with the decision, and it reportedly plans to file for an appeal.

“Apple Search Ads goes further than any other digital advertising platform we are aware of by providing users with a clear choice as to whether or not they would like personalized ads. Additionally, Apple Search Ads never tracks users across [third-party] apps and websites and only uses first-party data to personalize ads,” Apple said in a statement.

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on January 6, 2023.