Apple Agrees to Change iPhone Ad-Tracking Prompts After German Probe
Apple has agreed to change how iPhone and iPad apps ask users for permission to use personal data for targeted advertising, ending a long-running German competition investigation into the company’s App Tracking Transparency system.
Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said on August 17, 2026 that Apple’s existing framework treated the company’s own services more favourably than third-party apps when requesting advertising consent.
The regulator’s concern was not with privacy controls themselves, but with the way Apple designed different consent experiences for its own products and for outside developers. It said those differences could disadvantage competing apps in the digital advertising market.
Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency with iOS 14.5 in 2021. The system requires apps to ask users before tracking their activity across other companies’ apps and websites for advertising or measurement purposes.
The feature became one of Apple’s most visible privacy initiatives, but it also disrupted parts of the mobile advertising industry by making cross-app tracking dependent on explicit user consent.
Under the agreement with Germany’s competition authority, Apple will make the language and presentation of the consent prompts more neutral and bring the treatment of third-party developers closer to the way Apple presents consent requests for its own services.
Developers will also receive more room to explain why personalised advertising matters to their services and business models.
The regulator said Apple will allow developers greater flexibility to combine Apple’s required consent request with the permissions they already need to obtain under European data-protection law.
Apple has to implement the changes. The commitments will remain in force for seven years and will be monitored by an independent trustee.
