A translation of the open letter from advertising companies to Apple: September 14, 2017 We're just now realizing what this means. An Open Letter from th

A translation of the open letter from advertising companies to Apple: September 14, 2017 We're just now realizing what this means. An Open Letter from the Digital Advertising Community "Community" means we're down to earth and neighborly. The undersigned organizations are leading trade associations for the digital advertising and marketing industries, collectively representing thousands of companies that responsibly participate in and shape today’s digital landscape for the millions of consumers they serve. We sell ads. Lots of ads. So much money. We're "responsible" for certain definitions of responsible. Like your teenager is "responsible" for crashing your new Porsche into a ravine. Speaking of Porsches, have we mentioned how much money we make selling ads? We are deeply concerned about the Safari 11 browser update that Apple plans to release, as it overrides and replaces existing user-controlled cookie preferences with Apple’s own set of opaque and arbitrary standards for cookie handling. That 99% of users think a cookie is a type of desert is neither here nor there. And by "user-controlled", we mean "defaults that benefit us". We're also annoyed they didn't ask us. We're a bit hit at parties. Safari’s new “Intelligent Tracking Prevention” would change the rules by which cookies are set and recognized by browsers. In addition to blocking all third-party cookies (i.e. those set by a domain other than the one being visited), as the current version of Safari does, this new functionality would create a set of haphazard rules over the use of first-party cookies (i.e. those set by a domain the user has chosen to visit) that block their functionality or purge them from users’ browsers without notice or choice. "Haphazard" meaning "we disagree". Also, we 100% agree with user notice or choice, unless the user chooses to block ads or desires notice on how we're using their data. That's, uh... proprietary. The infrastructure of the modern Internet depends on consistent and generally applicable standards for cookies, so digital companies can innovate to build content, services, and advertising that are personalized for users and remember their visits. Apple’s Safari move breaks those standards and replaces them with an amorphous set of shifting rules that will hurt the user experience and sabotage the economic model for the Internet. Can we talk about innovative advertising for a minute? We're piloting this pop-up that completely replaces boring content and downloads an awesome new app automatically. That app then opens with videos on housewife inventions. We've put a lot of hard work into sandwiching ourselves as the economic model for the internet, and it really grinds our gears that anyone would suggest there are other ways to make money besides working with us. Apple’s unilateral and heavy-handed approach is bad for consumer choice and bad for the ad-supported online content and services consumers love. Blocking cookies in this manner will drive a wedge between brands and their customers, and it will make advertising more generic and less timely and useful. Put simply, machine-driven cookie choices do not represent user choice; they represent browser-manufacturer choice. As organizations devoted to innovation and growth in the consumer economy, we will actively oppose any actions like this by companies that harm consumers by distorting the digital advertising ecosystem and undermining its operations. For example, how will users know which #brand to choose without advertising? How will our customers survive without us? Might as well shut down this whole internet thing. We strongly encourage Apple to rethink its plan to impose its own cookie standards and risk disrupting the valuable digital advertising ecosystem that funds much of today’s digital content and services. It's not like Apple's ever forged ahead with risky new business models or economic decisions before, and open letters are really effective, so we're confident this will work. Signed, A whole bunch of acronyms.