French hit Apple with antitrust complaint over serving personalized ads without consent

Apple has come under fire in France for its advertising system, with a lobbying group complaining its own ad-serving tool doesn't ask for user consent to offer targeted ads, despite Apple's policies forcing third-party iOS app developers to make the request.

Apple is in the process of enabling its App Tracking Transparency feature in iOS and iPadOS, which would require users to give consent to apps to track their activity to serve personalized advertising. However, in France, Apple's own tools are the subject of a complaint, claiming there are double standards at play.According to lobbying group France Digitale's complaint to regulator CNIL filed on Tuesday and seen by Bloomberg, the advertising system Apple uses for App Store, Apple News, and Stocks app ads doesn't require any permission from users to start tracking for advertising purposes. The feature, titled "Personalized Advertising" uses user data to determine and show appropriate ads to different users.

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