EU’s antitrust chief Vestager warns Apple to treat all apps equally amid privacy dispute

BRUSSELS: Europe’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, has warned Apple Inc to give equal treatment to all apps on its platform amid the iPhone maker’s privacy changes that have drawn charges of anti-competitive practices from rival Facebook Inc.

Apple will in the spring ask iPhone users for consent to track their data for personalized ads in what it says is a move to protect users’ privacy but which will limit apps’ ability to gather data from people’s phones that can be used for targeted advertising.

Facebook has been among the most vocal of the critics which stand to lose a substantial part of their revenue from Apple’s move.