A federal judge in the United States has narrowed the scope of a lawsuit accusing Apple of violating the privacy of iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch users by collecting personal data through their own apps, including the App Store, Apple Music and Apple TV.
Jonathan Stempel, Reuters:
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, dismissed nearly all claims based on the “Allow App Tracking Requests” setting on Apple mobile devices, although some claims were based on “Shared (Device) Analytics” settings. I agreed to proceed based on the settings.
Mobile device users have assured Apple that disabling the settings limits data collection, storage, and use, violates user agreements and several privacy and consumer protection laws, and ultimately limits user choice. He claimed that the data was collected, stored, and used in disregard of the law.
Davila said in a 39-page decision late Thursday that Apple made it clear to users that the “Allow app tracking requests” setting applies to “third-party apps and websites.” Ta.
So it would be “impossible” for any reasonable person to think that turning off this setting would mean withdrawing consent for Apple to collect data through its apps, he said.
However, the judge cited Apple’s disclosure that users can “completely disable (device) Analytics sharing” and that users can do so by disabling the “(device) Analytics sharing” setting. He said that it was reasonable for him to claim that he had withdrawn his consent.
MacDailyNews Note: If you’re a Mac user, here’s how to opt out of sharing your analytics.
You can opt out of sharing analytics from your Mac at any time.
Select (Apple menu) > (System Preferences), click (Privacy & Security) in the sidebar, and click (Analyze & Improve) on the right. (You may need to scroll down.) Turn off (Mac Analytics Sharing). To stop sharing analytics data with app developers, turn off Share with app developers.
How to view insights on Mac:
You can use the console app to view the analytics information sent to Apple.
• Open the Console app on your Mac.
• Click Mac Analytics Data in the sidebar.
• The console displays analytics information even if you do not choose to automatically send the report.
•Log messages that include SubmitDiagInfo in the (Process) column indicate when the analytics information was submitted to Apple.
If you are signed in as an administrator user, you can view all reports. If you are not signed in as an administrator, you can only view user reports.
All analytics information is sent anonymously to Apple.
Learn more about Apple analytics and privacy here.
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