Although it has always been said by its famous saying, “Privacy is an acquired right of every user and must be protected,” Apple is accused of violating European law after it used the IDFA tracking technology and placed it on iPhones without the users' knowledge and consent. And a security researcher confirms that the Mac Big Sur system is designed to develop privacy-invasive features for Apple applications.
What's the story
An IDFA identifier (like a cookie) is a unique identification number for every iPhone device and is used by advertisers to track your activity and target you with ads in the applications you use. This number can collect all information about the applications on the device, track the user and know his behavior and what he does online And in the iPhone. And the presence of the IDFA number on Apple devices without the consent or knowledge of the user means that Apple violated the privacy of its users, as the company and third parties such as application providers and advertisers can access this number and track users' behavior and thus know what they prefer and bombard them with a barrage of targeted ads.
And because cookies of all kinds need the consent of users under European Union law, the non-profit organization noyb submitted two complaints against Apple to the Spanish and German federations and said that the use of these identifiers requires informed and clear consent by users and this is what the American company did not do.
Apple responded
For its part, Apple opposed the charges and said that its practices comply with European Union laws and the latest version of iOS 14 gives users more control and control when it comes to the issue of ads and requires it to agree to be tracked by IDFA. A spokesman for Apple added, "The allegations against the company are inaccurate from a factual point of view, as they do not reach the IDFA number or use it on the user's device for any purpose."
Apple might be right as it would have allowed users to unsubscribe from ads targeting them via device settings and planned to ask iOS app developers to ask users if they would like to participate in the tracking process or not. But the matter was postponed to the next year 2021 after warnings about the impact of this decision on Facebook and the ad network and advertisers that run it. Despite this, the non-profit organization Noyb believes that the new feature will not make a big difference, whether or not it exists, and that the privacy of users is at risk.
According to Noyb, Apple has violated the law because tracking devices are illegal unless the user agrees to them, and not only should the advertising ID be restricted, but it should be permanently deleted from our smartphones because it is the most intimate for most of us and should be free of tracking tools by default.
Apple apps in Big Sur bypass the VPN
In a related news, one of the users said in his tweet that he noticed that some Mac applications in the Big Sur system ignore the presence of the VPN and use some method to access the Internet. Usually, many users prefer to connect to the Internet with VPN services in order to protect privacy as the identity of the connection and the country are hidden and encrypted for security. If Apple finds a way to connect its applications to the Internet without going through the VPN, this means two things. The first is that the company's servers can monitor you, which eliminates the idea for which the VPN has been activated and the second is that there is a way in the system to bypass the VPN and therefore even if you accept Apple applications to do this But what if malware takes advantage of the same thing? Privacy is gone, so VPN no longer makes sense. For his part, security researcher Patrick Wardle reviewed this claim and has already tweeted on his Twitter account that this is true and incomprehensible. Why is Apple doing this and placing an internet access loophole in its device. Apple has not yet commented on this matter, which some have suggested that Apple aims to monitor you and thus target you with ads, and the same was said in the presence of IDFA.
Conclusion
Since the complaint submitted by the organization is based on privacy laws and not the data protection regulation, the Spanish and German authorities can impose a direct fine on Apple in the first case if they are found guilty indeed. It is reported that Google also relies on a similar tracking system in Android phones and is currently being reviewed by the Noyb organization and will soon be accused of violating the privacy of users, also the reason as we said previously and we say it now unless you pay for the item / you are the item.
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