Android should follow Apple’s privacy move, digital rights group says

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Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international digital rights group appealed to Google to follow Apple's move of introducing an anti-app tracking feature and to come up with a similar step to protect user privacy.

"Android should follow with the same protections. Your move, Google," EFF said in a blog post.

The App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature will require apps to get user consent to track them on the Internet or to share their data with third parties.

The non-profit foundation believes that giving users control over app tracking, protects them from abuse, and allows them to make the best decisions for themselves.

Slams Facebook

The non-profit foundation also slammed Facebook for ‘faking’ to be a protector of small businesses and criticising Apple's new policy.

"This is a laughable attempt from Facebook to distract you from its poor track record of anti-competitive behavior and privacy issues as it tries to derail pro-privacy changes from Apple that are bad for Facebook’s business," EFF said.

It has appealed to policymakers to not be hoodwinked by Facebook's claim that Apple's new policy will hurt small businesses that benefit from targeted advertising.

Apple's anti-app tracking policy is all about profit, not privacy, Facebook says

EFF said that it is not users or small businesses but Facebook that gets the benefit of surveillance-powered advertising in the absence of Apple’s ATT tool.

The Association of National Advertisers estimates that publishers take home only 30 to 40 cents on every dollar spent on ads. The rest goes to well known data brokers, like Facebook and Google, or some unheard shady companies.

EFF accused Facebook for building a massive empire by tracking users and letting apps to sell users' data to third-party companies.

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"Facebook stands to lose if its users learn more about exactly what it and other data brokers are up to behind the scenes," EFF said.