A Letter to Apple Canada
Sent to Apple on January 19, 2021
Dear Apple Canada,
This letter requests a meeting to address widespread questions and concerns around the changes Apple has decided to implement with recent updates to the iOS 14 operating system updates, without industry consultation.
Our organizations, signed below, represent hundreds of brands, agencies and digital media companies across Canada. Our collective members invest millions of dollars into the digital ecosystem each year, and as such wish to discuss our concerns with the changes.
We share Apple’s strong support for consumer privacy and choice, and we hope to see Apple strengthen and extend those important goals while also protecting the consumer experience and the ad-supported digital economy.
It is in this regard we hope to better understand the specific rationale for the changes you have made to your operating system, specifically the new consent prompts for apps, how the changes will be implemented, timing, and what steps might be taken by marketers, publishers, app developers, and other parties to ensure that critical functionality is preserved.
Without immediate engagement in a cross-industry dialogue, we believe the proposed changes will have a profound negative impact on both consumers and businesses, as iPhone and iPad users risk losing access to many popular ad-funded apps such as games. In addition, news organizations and other publishers will be starved of a vital source of revenue, most especially devastating during this current period of economic uncertainty. Moreover, vibrant ad-supported innovation and competition will wither with the changes Apple has introduced, and critical functionality will grind to a halt across the advertising supply chain.
We strongly recommend that Apple, who we recognize is headquartered in the United States, join the recently launched Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM), to help create global, industry-wide standards for addressable media. PRAM’s objective is to safeguard privacy and improve consumer experience, while protecting key functionalities like customization and analytics, which are necessary for digital media and advertising. Please join this industry effort so that together the industry can develop an effective universal solution that extends across the entire ecosystem, not just to Apple-owned products and platforms.
It is through initiatives like PRAM that we avoid an emerging structural risk of a patchwork of conflicting policies around addressability being implemented by a handful of companies that control browsers and operating systems.
Apple must understand the impact of its changes on organizations in the ecosystem, both financially and operationally – which can be particularly sensitive in smaller markets like Canada. We believe it is essential to adopt a fair approach that balances the interests of companies that control platforms, such as Apple, with those of consumers, publishers, third-party networks, and developers. After all, it is the products and services, these apps and media offerings that make up the overwhelming majority of time consumers spend on Apple devices, which also contribute to the success of Apple and its products in the first place.
Given the significant time needed for brands, publishers and other companies to adapt their systems to Apple’s unexpected changes, it is imperative that Apple engage with industry as soon as possible so that these issues can be addressed, solutions can be discovered and there is a coordinated effort implemented across the marketing and advertising industry.
As such, we request a meeting in Q1 2021, and invite Apple to engage with us via a public learning session for the advertising industry. We look forward to a productive dialogue that will ensure privacy is upheld while preserving the robust ad-supported digital marketplace in Canada.
Signed,
Ron Lund, President and CEO, Association of Canadian Advertisers
Shannon Lewis, President, Canadian Media Directors Council
Julie Ford, Executive Director, Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada