Max Schrems launches a new offensive. This time, the Austrian activist and his organisation Noyb accuse the American giant Apple of tracking its users without their knowledge and consent. On Monday 16 November, he lodged a complaint with the relevant Spanish and German authorities for failure to comply with the e-Privacy Directive (2002/58/EC).
“EU law protects our devices from external tracking. Tracking is only allowed if users explicitly consent to it. This very simple rule applies regardless of the tracking technology used”, says Stefano Rossetti, Noyb’s lawyer.
The complaint relates specifically to the identifier generated by Apple’s iOS operating system, the Identifier for Advertisers. The identifier works like a licence plate: it allows Apple and other third parties to identify a user using different apps or other support systems (online/mobile).
But even with the improvements announced by Apple, Noyb claims that this system is illegal. The organisation chose to invoke the e-Privacy Directive, rather than the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in order to avoid the cooperation of EU data protection authorities, which lengthens the duration of the procedure.
In addition, Noyb does not rule out filing a complaint against Google on the same grounds. “Google uses a similar tracking system which is currently being reviewed”, the organisation says. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)