iOS 14 Privacy: A Breakthrough For The User

iOS 14 privacy: a breakthrough for the user. Apple is increasingly chasing the protection of the privacy of its users. Apple strengthens its image as a company that declares itself more and more attentive to user privacy. The company has announced important news for the new version, 14.5. iOS 14 has been a reality since September 2020, but the update has made people talk.

Version 14.5 will make behavioral tracking activity for marketing purposes more visible to all users using the device’s unique IDFA (Advertising Identifier). With this feature, Apple tries to give as little information as possible to third parties about digital searching habits. Habits that are essential for an entrepreneur to desecrate the customer, create ad hoc ads, get to know the target in a specific way, and aim well when it comes to market offerings

Apple’s Privacy News With iOS 14.5

With its 14.5, for the first time, the user will not have to undergo the factory preset of his sharing with various APIs without having a say. This setting allows you to follow the user’s behavior for advertising purposes in a setup that is not easily mutable. Instead, developers can insinuate themselves into the devices and collect what interests them.

Now, with 14.5, you can access your device’s iOS settings, and in the “Privacy” menu, you can select the appropriate “Tracking” sub-menu. A selection button will be “Allow Apps to Request to Track,” deactivated by default, which can be activated or kept off. If the switch is left off, apps requesting tracking by accessing the IDFA will not be able to proceed because the user will have signaled that they do not want to be disturbed, not only by tracking.

The process is similar to the “Do Not Track” feature used in browsers. The apps that have requested access will be listed below the button, thus allowing a selection. The tracking notice will also appear case-by-case, for example, by installing and activating a new app. Apple has introduced a specific pop-up to warn the user of the tracking and ask for confirmation.

Clicking on “Allow Tracking “will occur consensually within the single requesting app. This novelty represents a step forward for transparency and respect for privacy by default. Now developers who want to monetize through user tracking must adopt the ATT API and respect this setting.

Users Choose Who To Trust

In practice, what happens? App Tracking Transparency, put, gives the user a choice. It allows you to be more active in protecting privacy if you want, and it should also make you more aware of the issue, especially when talking about minors. For awareness, in reality, Apple has already provided a tool for a few months: a label associated with each app that we have downloaded or intend to download, which explains in detail what data that software collects on users. Some apps had already been restricted.

Apple introduced new labels on its App Store on December 14 that tell in a detailed and straightforward way what data the applications collect. A specific summary for each software that ends up on the Store and that every developer must deliver for his new app to be published on Apple’s virtual Store or for the update of an existing app to become effective.

After this step, it is also possible to apply that acquired knowledge in your preferred way. You can therefore decide to continue to be tracked and provide apps with information about your behavior. However, this information is the one that is used, as already mentioned, for advertising profiling by the company itself or not—just one click. The iPhone or iPad will ask what users want to do via a pop-up on the screen just after downloading the app.

But How Can Apple Ensure That Apps Don’t Track?

If you select “Ask the app not to track me,” the developer will not be able to access the so-called IDFA or the Identify for Advertisers: an identifier assigned by Apple to each device. With this tool, tracking online movements and behaviors will be possible. It must be said that Apple’s policies will require, from now on, to respect the user’s will, and if this is not the case, the application will be deleted from the App Store.

So it will not be downloaded by potentially 900 million people (active iPhones worldwide). At this point, it’s undoubtedly worth complying with App Store policies, but how much should we leave out about our users? How much more difficult will it be to profile them? In short, Apple has become the privacy policy, at least on its devices, and tries to spread the culture of explicit consent with the privacy issue.

The Functions: Password Monitoring And Privacy Report

The new iOS will also introduce two new functions in the Safari browser: password monitoring to notify the user if he is using an insecure password according to specific parameters and another Privacy Report to report how the websites visited are tracking the user. We are therefore talking not only about Native Apps but also about websites and e-commerce, and web apps.

The Novelty Lies In Asking The User

There are still some things that could be improved about how effective this block is permanent. But the novelty has been welcomed by most associations dealing with protecting privacy. Obviously, and fortunately for entrepreneurs, there are other ways to follow people’s behavior, such as what is called “fingerprinting,” but not only.

The real revolution of App Tracking Transparency (ATT) does not lie in the total blocking of app tracking, which is still uncertain, but in the direct and open request for consent from the user to do so. Apple, for its part, carries out a marketing campaign to invite users to regain control of their data. The last piece of this battle translates into a new commercial published yesterday on Apple’s official YouTube channel.

The Other News Of iOS 14.5

The iOS 14.5 update brings other, less critical news regarding customer desecration. There are new emojis and a more accurate Siri voice. Also, now it becomes easier to unlock your smartphone. In short, the news is many and also important. What will happen? We’ll see how many will still allow the tracking of their data and how many will use the new Apple functions as a shield instead.

If you create and manage advertising campaigns for yourself or your customers and are concerned about the impact that ios 14 may have on them or are simply interested in creating Ios apps, contact us! We manage budgets of tens of thousands of euros for our promotions; our team will be able to provide you with the right solutions to bypass this dreadful update.