- French media and advertising groups are calling on Apple to suspend its new ‘Distraction Control’ feature, Business Insider exclusively reported.
- They claim that the new iPhone tool could hinder websites and advertisements.
- The groups said in a letter that they were “actively considering all available legal remedies.”
A group of French trade associations representing around 800 companies in the advertising and media sectors have sent an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling on the tech giant to suspend the rollout of the iPhone’s new ‘Distraction Control’ feature .
Distraction Control, which became available this fall with iOS 18, allows users of the iPhone’s Safari browser to hide elements on web pages such as images, pop-ups or ads. It then remembers these requests when the user revisits the page, although Apple says it does not “permanently” hide elements of websites that change frequently, such as advertisements.
In the letter sent Thursday, a copy of which has been seen by Business Insider, the French trade groups cited three main concerns about the feature after testing the beta and publicly released versions.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
In the letter, the groups raise concerns that users could be hiding websites’ consent management platforms – the technology that enables cookie consent pop-ups – which could put site owners at risk of non-compliance with the European General Regulation Data protection.
This could also hinder publishers’ revenues, they say in the letter. European media companies are increasingly asking users to consent to personalized advertising – which is generally more lucrative than non-targeted advertising – or to pay to access their content.
The French trade groups also say in the letter that in testing they discovered that – on some occasions – all ads on certain websites were hidden after the user chose to hide ads on one page of the site. (Apple has said the feature doesn’t “permanently hide ads.”)
The letter states that this “poses an existential threat to the online advertising model that underpins a significant portion of the Internet economy.”
Apple, which regularly markets its products as pro-consumer and pro-privacy, billed the feature as a way for users to avoid internet distractions. The website notes that while users can hide items they find distracting, they can also turn them back on at any time.
The letter also states that Distraction Control, by allowing users to hide all content on a web page – and in particular the editorial content produced by media outlets – could prevent the ‘manipulation of information’ and its spread across the internet stir up.
While it’s possible to manipulate web pages using image editing tools, Distraction Control makes it very easy to zap away certain content with a tap, take a screenshot and share it, says Pierre Devoize, deputy director of digital marketing organization Alliance . Digitale, one of the trade organizations that co-signed the letter.
The letter was signed by Alliance Digitale, the press organization Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale, the online publishers association Geste, the advertising agency Syndicat des Régies Internet, the advertising group Union des Marques and Udecam, the media union. purchasing and planning agencies.
The letter urges Apple to suspend the rollout of Distraction Control and provide technical documentation about its features and any planned updates.
The groups say in the letter that they are “actively considering all available legal remedies” regarding data protection, press freedom, intellectual property rights, copyright and trademark law, and competition regulation.
The letter was also copied to several French ministers, the French competition authority and the European Commission.
Publishers and advertising companies have been affected by Apple software updates in the past
Earlier this year, the same French groups raised concerns with Apple over reports of an expected feature called “Web Eraser,” which they feared could hamper their ad revenue.
This letter was a response to reports from AppleInsider which, citing people familiar with the matter, described the planned feature as a way to allow Safari users to delete content and have the browser recognize those choices — a description that bears a striking similarity to Distraction Control. The British publishing group News Media Association also sent a letter to Apple warning that such a tool would threaten the financial sustainability of journalism.
AppleInsider later reported that Apple had changed the feature’s name from Web Eraser to Distraction Manager and updated it with a pop-up explaining that it “would not permanently remove ads.”
Publishers and advertising companies have been hit by Apple software updates before. The 2021 App Tracking Transparency update forced app owners to get explicit consent from users before tracking them across other apps and websites. Many users declined to be tracked, making it harder for developers such as media publishers to monetize their apps.
That followed another major privacy change in 2017, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which disabled the use of third-party tracking cookies in the Safari browser by default. Some publishers and ad tech companies reported reductions in CPMs, the cost of targeting 1,000 impressions, almost immediately after rollout.
