French privacy watchdog fines Apple over personalised ads

FILE PHOTO: The Apple Inc logo is seen at the entrance to the Apple store in Brussels, Belgium November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman

PARIS (Reuters) - France's privacy watchdog CNIL on Wednesday said it had imposed an 8 million euro ($8.49 million) fine linked to ad personalisation in the iPhone maker's App Store, citing shortcomings with regard to user consent.

"The advertising targeting settings available from the "Settings" icon of the iPhone were pre-checked by default", the CNIL said in a statement, even though that was not strictly necessary for the device's functioning.