The crybabies making up a Google-backed group of European advertisers are very upset that Apple will shortly require apps to notify users that they intend to track them and ask their permission first. As Yoda might say, “The schadenfreude is strong in this one, Obi-Wan.”
Apple will enforce this with a popup the first time an app requests a device’s IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers). Users will be asked if they wish to allow the tracking. Despite the one-time nature of the popup, the adtech crybabies are whining that it’s an intolerable burden and users might even refuse to grant permission. They insist that Apple should abide by their industry standard for handling such things.
The group appears to believe that it’s somehow incumbent on Apple and its users to make it easy for them to track us. Their complete disregard for the do-not-track bit shows that they don’t care a whit whether we want to be tracked or not. That’s why the new popup is so unfair: Apple is not letting them do what they want, users be damned.
Consider for just a moment what the advertisers’ position boils down to. They don’t want Apple to let their users know when they’re being tracked and when, finally, Apple does it’s somehow unfair.
I get that advertising pays for all that content we consume and that it’s a necessary part of the modern Web. It doesn’t follow, however, that therefore we shouldn’t complain about being tracked. Advertisers do it because they believe—erroneously according to most research—that targeted advertising is more effective but even if it were, that doesn’t mean we should acquiesce to it. Send me advertisements but don’t track me and don’t run scripts on my machine without my permission.
Finally, an orthogonal point about the press and Apple. This is a story about how Apple is doing the right thing and the adtech industry is upset about it. Why then did Reuters insert the photo and its caption at the top of the article? It has nothing to do with the story and arguably makes Apple look bad. Just another example of why the press is not a favored industry at Irreal.