Nearly all U.S. iOS users are choosing “Ask App Not to Track.”
Most iOS users have opted out of ad tracking. Though the number varies, only 4-6% of users have allowed tracking companies like Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Amazon, and others to track them. Apple’s guidelines specify that companies cannot link activities in apps to users or devices across apps or services. However, Apple wasn’t clear enough in exactly what “linking” is. This has enabled companies to find creative ways around directly tracking users by their login information or device UDIDs. Now, companies are adjusting, and they’re still collecting a surprising amount of information that allows them to identify users, even if they’ve asked apps not to track them.
How Apps Are Still Tracking Users
App developers never really had to comply with Apple’s ad tracking policies. Apple threatened that they would ban developers from the App Store for violating their guidelines, but hasn’t followed through. Furthermore, even the option isn’t binding. Users can “ask not to track,” not block tracking. The only threat was angering Apple, but it seems they may be more lenient than previously assumed. Apple sees their privacy policies as a “north star,” a goal they want to push developers towards, but not something they’re willing to enforce just yet.
Snapchat is reporting to investors that they can track individual user engagement. Facebook, Google, and others can likely do the same. However, it doesn’t seem to be direct tracking. They’re not using device identifiers to track users across apps and services, or email addresses. Instead app developers can use other pieces of data to make highly accurate predictions. For example, if a company like Facebook knows that a user in your area with this particular list of interests just saw an ad for a particular item, and can relate it to sales data from anyone willing to sell that data to Facebook, or simply use predictions based on previous interactions with a brand or category of products, they can predict as to whether or not the ad was effective.
While companies can’t be 100% certain of interactions, they’re getting better at estimating it, and for companies selling ads, that can be enough. The data these companies are already tracking is enough to predict a person’s actions outside of their service, which is perhaps a more dangerous implication than the tracking alone.
What Can Apple Do?
“Apple can’t put themselves in a situation where they are basically gutting their top-performing apps from a user-consumption perspective. That would ultimately hurt iOS.”
– Cory Munchbach, COO of customer data platform BlueConic
Apple’s in a position they’re not entirely happy with. They were able to keep advertising companies away from user’s most identifiable information, but not keep them out entirely. They can ban companies using workarounds to track individual users but, this will weaken the platform. iOS will become the place where users have no access to their favorite apps and services. Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Amazon, these apps are still ones users want. Therefore, Apple has to nudge them towards privacy, without mandating it.
Reports state that Apple has reached a sort of “uncomfortable truce” with companies, pushing for privacy and keeping the worst violations of users’ privacy off their platform, without stopping tracking. Apple has to balance the privacy and security that users want with the wishes of the companies they need on the platform. These companies haven’t figured out how to make money without violating your privacy. As a result, Apple can’t ban them without upsetting users. For now, the middle ground Apple has achieved is the best we can get, even if it’s only a small improvement. Maybe one day we’ll be able to use our phones without telling many companies everything about us.
Sources:
- Samuel Axon, ArsTechnica
- William Gallagher, AppleInsider
- Patrick McGee, Financial Times via ArsTechnica
- Chance Miller, AppleInsider
- Mike Peterson, AppleInsider