iOS 14.5 – the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system – is released today and brings with it a much-discussed new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency.
The feature was first announced almost a year ago, though the company delayed its launch to give developers more time to prepare. Since then, the feature has been supported in iOS, and some apps have already adopted it (e.g. I’ve seen tracking requests from Duolingo and Venmo), but now Apple is saying the new rules are actually being enforced.
That means iPhone owners will see a lot more privacy prompts if they keep using their regular apps. Everyone asks permission to “track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites”. Any app that requests tracking permission will also appear in a tracking menu in your broader iOS privacy settings, so you can toggle tracking on and off at any time – for individual apps or for all.
What does switching the tracking on or off do? If you opt out of tracking, the app will no longer be able to use Apple’s IDFA ID to share data about your activity with data brokers and other third parties for ad targeting purposes. It also means the app will no longer be able to use other identifiers (like hashed email addresses) to track you, although it may be more difficult for Apple to actually enforce this part of the policy.
Credit: Apple
In the run-up to its introduction, there was intense debate about the transparency of app tracking. The Pro-ATT side is pretty straightforward to explain: there is a tremendous amount of personal information and activity being collected about consumers without their consent (as Apple pointed out in a report entitled A day in the life of your data)This gives us an easy way to control this sharing.
However, Facebook has argued that by taking a serious blow to ad targeting, Apple is also hurting small businesses that rely on affordable, effective ad campaigns to target.
The social network even ran ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, stating that it “stands up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.” (The Electronic Frontier Foundation dismissed the campaign as “a ridiculous attempt by Facebook to distract you from its poor track record of anti-competitive behavior and privacy issues as it tries to derail changes to Apple’s privacy policy that are bad for Facebook’s business.”)
Others have suggested that These changes can cause “existential” damage to some developers and advertisersThis also benefits Apple’s bottom line.
The full impact depends in part on how many people choose to turn off tracking. It’s hard to imagine a lot of ordinary iPhone owners saying yes when they see these prompts – especially since developers do must not restrict any functions based on who opts for tracking or not. However, mobile attribution company AppsFlyer says early data suggests so The opt-in rates could be up to 39%..