Apple transferring ahead on app privateness, regardless of pushback » Borneo Bulletin On-line
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – An update to the software that powers around one billion iPhones around the world is rolled out today with an enhanced privacy feature that critics fear will disrupt the world of internet advertising.
Apple is asking app makers to let users know what tracking information they want to collect and get permission to do so. So-called “data protection nutrition labels” are displayed.
Apple’s move has sparked a major conflict with Facebook and other tech competitors and could have a significant impact on privacy and the mobile ecosystem.
Digital ads are the lifeblood of internet giants like Google and Facebook and are paid for for the cornucopia of free online content and services.
An update to the iOS software for iPhone, iPad and iPod devices brings with it an “App Tracking Transparency Framework” that prevents apps from tracking users or accessing device identification information without permission.
“If you don’t get user permission to enable tracking, the device’s advertising identifier value will be all zeros and you may not be able to track it,” Apple said in an online message to developers this week.
According to Apple, the requirement, which some developers adopted early on, applies to all iOS apps from today.
Eric Seufert, analyst and strategist at Mobile Dev Memo, said Apple’s new framework, along with digital advertising, could “stimulate” the app economy more broadly, calling the new policy “a change agent.”
Seufert said in a blog post: “It is impossible to dismiss the fact that digital advertising on mobile devices is powered by what Apple defines as” tracking. “To explicitly remove this activity from the ecosystem, the mobile operating model must change . “
With more than a billion iOS devices in active use worldwide, a change in the mobile operating system that could potentially affect the effectiveness of digital displays could be significant.
Platforms like Facebook or Google that rely on advertising are usually only paid when someone takes an action, e.g. B. Clicking on a marketing message.
Ads that are made irrelevant because less is known about users can mean fewer clicks and, in a broader sense, less revenue.
Mobile apps and the Internet in general have flourished with free information, games, directions, and more. Ads make money to keep data centers up and running and the flow of profits.
