Apple launched iOS 14.5 On April 26th, one of the most awaited upgrades in years. It provides a new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency, which gives the users a greater say over how their data is shared and exchanged.
ATT stands for App Tracking Transparency (ATT), it is a new functionality feature in iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS 14.5 that allows users to grant permission to the apps that ask to monitor actions through apps and websites from other businesses to share the information with advertisers and third parties. Apple devices have a special number known as an “advertising identifier” that can be used to uniquely mark it for ad targeting and further monitoring.
This small pop-up window has caused havoc in the online advertising industry. Facebook, in particular, was offended. Last year, the social network launched a website and ran full-page newspaper advertisements criticizing Apple's new privacy function as disruptive to small businesses. Of course, the fact that the privacy setting could damage Facebook's own company was a major motivator. If we refuse to allow Facebook to watch us, it would be more difficult for the company to see what we are shopping for or doing in other applications, making it more difficult for advertisers to reach us with advertisements.
“This is a huge step in the right direction, if only because it makes Facebook sweat,” said Gennie Gebhart, director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit. “One major question is: Can it work?” she added.
According to Ms. Gebhart and other privacy experts, Apple's latest feature might not be enough to avoid shady monitoring on Apple devices. It might simply force developers and ad-tech companies to find loopholes so they can continue monitoring users in various ways.
So how does tracking function? Assume you use a shopping app to look for clothes. You spend some time looking at items from Brand X. Later, advertisements for the same item or similar items begin to appear in other applications, such as Facebook and Instagram.
Here is what practically happened the shopping app employed an ad technology firm that incorporates trackers into the application. These trackers have looked at the device details to identify you. When you opened other applications from the same ad-tech company, the apps will recognize you and provide you with advertisements that contain items from Brand X.
The new privacy feature Apple-designed opens a pop-up window with this message: “Allow [App Name] to monitor your actions through software and web pages of other companies?” Choose “Ask App Not to Track” or “Enable”.
When we click the “Ask App Not to Track” button, two things happen. Firstly, Apple prevents the app from having an Apple account id, which is a random string of letters and numbers allocated to our iPhone devices and used to trace our activity through smartphones and websites. The second step is to remind the software creator that we do not want our information to be monitored or exchanged with others in any way.
This doesn’t deny Ad-tech firms all access as they have several avenues to follow us outside Apple’s device identifier. For instance, advertisers may use the fingerprinting process. This includes examining otherwise harmless features — such as screen resolution, operating system edition, and model — on your smartphone and integrating them to identify you and monitor your applications in various ways.
It is hard for Apple, Privacy researchers said, to block tracks and fingerprints on iPhones. This would entail knowledge or prediction of a new form of monitoring that an ad-tech company develops.
“There isn't a lot you can do from a technological perspective” to avoid such monitoring, said Mike Audi, the founder of Tiki, an app that can let you see what other apps use your data for.
However, the improvement of privacy remains meaningful because it requires our informed consent. Stephanie Nguyen, a Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab, explained that pop-up windows make privacy management even easier for users to explore. Although iPhone owners were able to limit monitoring advertisers previously, such features were hidden in places where most people weren't looking.
“It was the alternative before, but was it, actually?” said Ms. Nguyen. “This is a huge change — to be seen.”
Any application of monitoring activity has to include the App Tracking Transparency pop-up in their next tech update. This means that we can first see a limited number of applications that ask for approval to track us and monitor us, with more apps updated with time. Apple may not be doing this out of the goodness of its heart but any step that increases transparency and gives users more control over their privacy is indeed welcome.
