When we ran a poll last month, the overwhelming majority of 9to5Mac readers agreed that Apple should exit the ad business. Ads have now landed in Apple Maps in the US and Canada, and my view is that they are every bit as bad as expected.

Apple warned us back in March that we would begin seeing ads in the company's Maps app at some point in the summer. We first spotted them ourselves yesterday, and the company confirmed that the rollout began in the last few days. Within a few weeks, everyone in the US and Canada will be seeing them.

Before searching: Suggested Places in the search screen will feature an ad. After searching: Ads will appear in search results when relevant. The company says that privacy is a major focus. A user's location and the ads they see and interact with in Maps are not associated with their Apple Account. Personal data stays on the user's device, is not collected or stored by Apple, and is not shared with advertisers or other third parties.

I'm sure all of that is true, but I still think it's a terrible look for two reasons. First, while Apple isn't doing any kind of tracking in order to deliver personalized ads, almost every other app and website is. Most people are going to assume the iPhone maker is doing the same, and – however unfair the perception might be – that damages the company's reputation for protecting our privacy. Second, it simply looks cheap.