France Fines Apple $162M for App Tracking Transparency, Taking the Side of Surveillance Advertisers Over Users

John Gruber:

It’s like a consortium of sketchy pawn shops complaining to the authorities after a popular retailer successfully cracked down on an organized shoplifting/pickpocketing ring, and the authorities then fining the retailer for the damage to the pawnbrokers’ business fencing stolen goods — and for exposing the police as ineffective.

This decision by French authorities melts my brain, and another reason for Apple (who are far from perfect in many respects) to ask “why do we even bother?”.