App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is an Apple privacy initiative intended to give iPhone owners greater control over how developers collect and use their data. However, Apple was accused of treating its own apps more favourably than third‑party ones, and the German antitrust regulator opened an investigation into this practice.\n\nUnder the agreed remedy, the consent pop‑ups shown to outside developers must become “visually and linguistically neutral”, stripped of discouraging wording and symbols, and developers will be allowed to combine Apple’s mandatory tracking request with their own data‑protection prompt, removing the two‑step hurdle that Apple’s own apps could quietly sidestep. Four months are given for implementation.\n\nApple has seven years of compliance monitoring and told us the required changes are minor, emphasizing that privacy is a fundamental human right and that the current ATT prompt is clear and effective, a view shared by the German data protection authorities.\n\nThe company says these commitments let it continue providing the important privacy tool in Europe while keeping users, not ad tech companies and data brokers, in control of their data. A deeper dive into the changes will be published tomorrow.