Apple may remove apps that track users without permission in 2021

Starting next year, Apple will initially monitor apps from its App Store without permission, promising to improve iPhone user privacy but shake up the app advertising industry.

Application developers and other professionals currently use the Advertiser Identifier (IDFA) or a string of different letters and numbers on each Apple device to target ads and measure how effective they are.

In an update to the iPhone operating system expected “early next year”, app makers will be forced to ask permission to access a user’s IDFA through a pop-up. A significant portion of users decide to opt out, reducing the effectiveness and profitability of targeted advertising. This change takes the privacy option previously embedded in the settings and puts it in front and center when users open each application.

On Tuesday, Craig Federhi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, said that the only way to install software on an iPhone is to remove apps that do not meet the new requirements called Apple App Tracking Transparency (ADT).

The move targets app developers who make money through targeted advertising against Apple, which has created a way to differentiate privacy features from competitors in its products. Critics Adds Facebook, this Said This change could reduce revenue by 50% in one of its advertising businesses.

“Some in the advertising industry are campaigning against these efforts – claiming that ADT will dramatically affect ad-supported businesses – but when we introduce smart surveillance blocking, we expect the industry to transform, providing effective advertising without aggressive surveillance, ”Federhi said. Speech at a European Privacy Conference.

Here are some examples of monitoring that need to get permission from the user before the app makers do, According to Apple:

• Display targeted ads in apps based on user data collected from apps and websites owned by other companies.
• Sharing device location data or email lists with data brokers.
• Sharing a list of emails, ad IDs or other IDs with a third-party ad network uses that information to reconfigure those users in other developers’ applications or to find similar users.

“At the beginning of next year, we will start requiring all applications that want to do so in order to gain the user’s explicit permission, and developers who fail to meet that standard may remove their applications from the App Store,” Federichi said.

The revelation that Apple could eliminate incompatible applications raises the stakes for an expected date early next year, when app developers will have to ask for explicit permission to use IDFA for monitoring, forcing developers to rebuild a portion of their advertising target systems. With the requirements of Apple.

Apple iPhones account for more than 25% of smartphones worldwide, According to StatCounter, But its market share is higher in countries like the United States. In addition, iPhone users are often seen as wealthy and highly valued customers. If app developers are removed from the App Store, they will lose a huge market.

Apple’s ATT is the latest in a series of moves to reduce the ability of advertisers to collect data on iPhone users. In 2017, Apple introduced a feature called IDP, which used machine learning to block ad trackers in Apple’s Safari browser. On Tuesday, Apple launched Required Application developers must submit a detailed questionnaire about their privacy practices and the data they and third party partners collect before being approved in the App Store.

Apple has been criticized on both sides of the IDFA issue. In France, advertising agencies and publishers The competition filed a complaint in October He accused the planned move from IDFA of using privacy as a cover for reactionary behavior to hurt small technology companies.

Last month, Apple was also hit Complaints of activists in Europe It said the IDFA – the current body – did not comply with European privacy laws.

“We delayed the release of ADT early next year to give developers the time they indicated they needed to systematically update their systems and data practices, but we are fully committed to our comprehensive approach to ADT and privacy protection,” senior Jane Harvath, Apple’s privacy director, responded.

Apple has not publicly said when ADT will take effect.