According to a report from France Digitale, the country’s leading startup lobby, the data privacy watchdog CNIL will file a lawsuit and complaint against iPhone maker and the tech giant Apple on Tuesday for suspected violations of European Union laws over privacy concerns.
The lobby, which reflects the majority of France’s digital entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, claims that Apple’s new operating software, iOS 14, does not align with EU privacy standards in a seven-page lawsuit shown on Reuters.
While iPhone owners are asked if they are willing to allow installed mobile apps to collect a key identification used to identify campaign advertising and submit targeted advertisements, France Digitale claims that default settings allow Apple to run its own targeted ad campaigns without explicitly asking iPhone users for their permission.
All institutions must ask visitors online whether they want to have any of their data collected through trackers or other tools under EU data privacy rules.
The very same rules also give everyone the right to request data on the purposes of collecting data and how it is done.
More About Allegations On Apple:
Apple’s monitoring feature, according to the lobby, allows it to share the data it gathers with affiliated organizations without informing users.
“It’s a startup version of David versus Goliath, but we are determined,” France Digitale CEO Nicolas Brien in a statement. And according to the official statements they are making, they indeed are looking determined.
“The allegations in the complaint are patently false and will be seen for what they are, a poor attempt by those who track users to distract from their own actions and mislead regulators and policymakers,” Apple said in a written statement. We don’t who is right and whether both of them are going to settle down the situation or not, but the situation is serious.
France Digitale’s complaint comes after a similar case against Apple was lodged with the antitrust authority by French digital advertising lobbies last October.
It also falls after Noyb, an Austrian advocacy group, filed a complaint with data privacy authorities in Germany and Spain, claiming that Apple’s monitoring tool enabled the company to store users’ data without their permission.
