Apple to crack down on iPhone-user tracking in early spring

Apple says it will roll out a new privacy control in spring 2021 to prevent iPhone apps from secretly shadowing people. — AP

SAN RAMON, California: Apple plans to roll out a new privacy control in the early spring to prevent iPhone apps from secretly shadowing people. That puts the feature on course to come out after a more than six-month delay aimed at placating Facebook and other digital services that depend on such data surveillance to help sell ads.

Although Apple didn’t provide a specific date, the general timetable disclosed Thursday means the long-awaited safeguard known as App Tracking Transparency will be part of an iPhone software update likely to arrive in late March or some point in April.