Apple is facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit over App Tracking Transparency, the feature that put a permission prompt between advertisers and your iPhone data.
The suit claims Apple held third-party developers to a stricter standard than it applied to its own apps under the same policy. App Tracking Transparency, launched in 2021, requires apps to ask permission before tracking users across other apps and websites for ad purposes. The complaint argues Apple's own data practices did not face the same scrutiny it demanded of outside developers. The case seeks $2.7 billion in damages.
This is the argument that has dogged App Tracking Transparency since day one: Apple built a walled garden and then put itself in charge of the gate. If a court agrees Apple applied one rule to competitors and another to itself, it undercuts the company's long-standing pitch that ATT was purely about user privacy rather than a convenient way to squeeze rivals who depend on ad targeting.
Apple has weathered similar complaints before, including antitrust scrutiny in Europe over App Store rules. A $2.7 billion verdict would sting, but the bigger cost may be to the privacy-champion image Apple has spent years building.