News

Apple makes new promises about transparency and privacy protection

iPhone owners will undoubtedly be pleased with Apple’s promise that it will warn them, in the future, if there is a possibility that an update could notably affect battery life or slow down a device.

This comes after the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressed concerns back in 2017 that users were not aware a software update could have a negative impact on the performance of a smartphone.

The CMA was also concerned that iPhone owners had unnecessarily been replacing batteries, or even sending in their devices for repair. Apple can now be taken to court if it doesn’t adhere to its promise.

Apple believes that, along with other improvements introduced, changes in the way it enables owners to monitor battery performance means that it already complies with the CMA’s wishes.

A spokesperson for the firm declined to comment.

In other Apple news, the company announced yesterday that WebKit, its browser engine, will introduce a new technology that will be able to track clicks on ads and whether they eventually result in a purchase, without compromising the user’s privacy.

In a blog post on the WebKit site, Apple said that in order to measure clicks, visitors will not be uniquely identified across the various websites they might visit. The system will also not allow ‘opaque’ 3rd parties to measure clicks, only the websites the users visit.

Apple’s decision is proof of how growing public scrutiny is forcing Silicon Valley to be more transparent, particularly after technology giants like Google and Facebook have become embroiled in data privacy scandals.

At a launch event two months ago, Apple placed the focus squarely on privacy as it launched Apple News+, and promised it will not reveal to advertisers what users were reading. It also promised that its newly launched credit card will not sell user data to advertisers.

Tags

About the author

Chris

I've been a passionate evangelist for Apple and the Macintosh throughout my working life, my first love was a Quadra 605 working with a small creative agency in the south of Norfolk UK in the mid 1990's, I later progressed to other roles in other Macintosh dominated industries, first as a Senior graphic designer at a small printing company and then a production manager at Guardian Media Group. As the publishing and printing sector wained I moved into Internet Marketing and in 2006 co-founded blurtit.com which grew to become one the top 200 visited sites in the US (according to Quantcast), at its peak receiving over 15 million visits per month. For the last ten years I have worked as an Affiliate and Consultant to many different business and start ups, my key skill set being online marketing, on page monetisation, landing page optimisation and traffic generation, if you would like to hire me or discuss your current project please reach out to me here.

You can also follow me on: and

Add Comment

Click here to post a comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.