BRUSSELS: Europe’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager has given what may perceived as a slap on the wrist to Apple in calling for 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.

Apple is asking iPhone users for consent to track their data for personalized ads in what it says is a move to protect users’ privacy.

But the software will limit many apps’ abilities 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.

Facebook has called it anti-competitive behaviour, saying Apple’s own personalised ad platform would be exempt from the new requirement giving users a choice of whether to opt in to tracking by third parties.