Users of "iPhone" around the world began receiving a series of unusual messages on Monday after downloading the latest update to Apple's IOS system. The message asks: "Do you want to allow this app to track you?" After 10 months of Apple promising to update privacy features on the iPhone operating system, the changes have finally arrived through the operating system named iOS 14.5, amid loud protests from the company's competitors, complaints in France, and clashes with antitrust laws in Germany.
The first time a user opens each app after the update, a simple question will appear: "Do you want to track your activity across apps and websites owned by other companies?" It will also give you two response options: "Don't Track" or "Allow."
Here’s where it’s important to understand what each of these options means, and before that, "What exactly is being tracked?" In the past, apps collected all kinds of personal information about you, including your location, other apps you use, an encrypted version when logging into the app, and shared it with third parties such as data brokers. These parties have data like your email address, phone number, and a unique identifier for your iPhone device called IDFA.
According to app developer Fun Corp, "hundreds of trillions of user actions and events" are tracked daily. A journalist from the Washington Post found that about 5,400 trackers received data from his mobile phone within a week. These programs send much data to various partners like Facebook and Google, according to the Financial Times, which was reviewed by "Al Arabiya."
Every time an iPhone user switches between apps and browses the web, a copy of the data is saved in the IDFA, allowing the online advertising industry to create a profile of consumer behaviors and deliver relevant advertisements.
What if you refuse tracking?
Apple wants all apps to obtain explicit consent for this behavior. If the user opts out the first time they receive the notification, the app will permanently lose access to the IDFA. Apple also expects that the app will not share other data like phone numbers and email addresses.
Do you want to stop receiving ads?
Choosing to refuse to share your data will not reduce the number of ads you see, but the ads will not be personalized as they were before. Users will continue to receive ads, but blocking the flow of data will make them less relevant and decrease the app's earnings from advertisers. In summary, the ad business model, which relied on a large number of free apps, has been significantly harmed.
How do companies feel about this?
The value of the digital advertising industry exceeds $350 billion per year. Therefore, Facebook, in particular, has built an annual business worth $80 billion by categorizing users and selling personalized ads. The company has also published full-page ads in several newspapers, including the Financial Times, stating that the change has affected small businesses and made it difficult to reach customers. Apple, for its part, claims it has "used its dominant market position to prioritize its own data collection while making it almost impossible for competitors to use the same data." Facebook responded by saying, "They claim it’s about privacy, but it’s about profit. We are not fooled by these slogans."
A significant exception
Some companies do not intend to ask users whether they wish to be tracked, as Google has decided to stop using the IDFA altogether. While Google's inability to access data from other apps is harmful, Google already has a huge amount of data from its suite of trusted applications. Whether an iPhone user uses Google Search tools, Maps, Chrome browser, Gmail, or YouTube, Google can use this data to create advertising profiles without being affected by Apple’s policy changes.
I have an Android phone; does this affect me?
For now, it does not. However, it is likely that Google's operating system will follow suit in some way. Google is working on a "privacy-first" advertisement for desktops and similar changes may be made in mobile applications.
