Security News > 2021 > April > Apple Moving Forward on App Privacy, Despite Pushback
Apple will begin requiring app makers to tell users what tracking information they want to gather and get permission to do so, displaying what have been referred to as "Privacy nutrition labels."
"Unless you receive permission from the user to enable tracking, the device's advertising identifier value will be all zeros and you may not track them," Apple said this week in an online message to developers.
The requirement, which some developers adopted early, will apply to all iOS apps as of Monday, according to Apple.
Mobile Dev Memo analyst and strategist Eric Seufert said Apple's new framework could "Upend" the app economy along with digital advertising more broadly, calling the new policy "a change agent."
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in the call that Apple was becoming one of his company's biggest competitors, with its rival smartphone messaging service and tight grip on the App Store, the sole gateway onto iPhones.
Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the move, saying in a recent interview: "The principle is that the individual should be in control over whether they're tracked or not; who has their data."