You’re right, it’s a bit more than the App Store.

AFAIK it also includes ads in the News app and apps that load articles from the News app (e.g. Stocks app).

Their fine print also mentions the TV app, but I haven’t seen ads there, so perhaps they’re referring to content suggestions.

This seems to be confirmed further down the line in the fine print when it says:

> We create segments to deliver personalized ads on the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks.

I’d say the main difference between Meta and Apple is that the latter doesn’t combine data from different source and only relies on their own data (what Apple calls “tracking”):

> Apple’s advertising platform does not track you, meaning that it does not link user or device data collected from our apps with user or device data collected from third parties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes, and does not share user or device data with data brokers.

It's been opt-in since at least 2021: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/09/02/apple-pushes-pop-...

I picked up a copy of Popular Mechanics yesterday and it took me a solid 2 seconds on half a dozen pages to determine if it was an ad or an article. The styles have sort of blended together and I don't think that's an accident.

Isn't looking at an Apple device just like looking at a newspaper? I seem to recall papers being chock full of ads outside the front page to a far greater extent than the Apple News app.

Our society depends on advertising for promoting new services, gaining new customers, and building trust. I would call it a social necessity which makes it very ethical as long as it is truthful. The hijacking that occurs is consensual as you should not visit sites if you disagree with their advertising habits. Even with the App Store almost never open it directly.

The ones that cannot be avoided are in the outside world. I would celebrate if every billboard, postal mail item, and other real world advertisement were banned completely as that is the part I have no direct control over.

Sure I agree. But there has to be some distinction between annoying but more or less harmless ads, like magazine ads and bus stop ads, and annoying ads, like the ones that might end up under your car wipers, in your bicycle basket, or mail box --- and internet spyware ads, that spy on you and sell your privacy to whoever got a dime.

What's the point of this name calling? I could call you a dead-end Apple cynic, of which there are plenty (and they're often wrong).

But is it ok for Apple to show you an ad in the first party Stocks or News app based on what you've searched for and purchased in the App store?

I don't own an apple device now but why does app store have ads ? After paying upwards of $1000+ on a iPhone, why can't you expect an ad free experience on a first party app store?

This isn’t really a business context though, it’s an ethical one.

I think most people would agree that velocity hardly matters here, what’s been actually done is generally what gets judgement, not where you will be in some time if you do everything the same.

What you are describing is essentially pre-crime.