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- Apple has released new information labels that tell users how applications collect data about them.
- The new App Store tags tell you how an iPhone application collects “data used to track you”, “data linked to you” and “data not linked to you.”
- This is part of a two-part launch: In early 2021, Apple plans to launch an additional feature that will mean that users will have to choose to be tracked for advertising purposes.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Apple released an update to its iOS 14 software on Monday that will allow users to see, in detail, how iPhone apps are tracking them.
The new feature adds tags to every iOS app in the App Store, informing users about how that app collects their data.
The developers had to send all this data before December 8. Apple says it won’t pull apps from its App Store if they haven’t complied, but they won’t be able to update until they have.
The labels divide data into three categories: “data used to track you”, “data linked to you” and “data not linked to you”.
“Data used to track you” applies to any data that is subsequently linked to data collected elsewhere to target advertising.
“Data linked to you” means any data that could be used to identify a user, even if that data is not actively transmitted for specific advertising purposes, for example, data collected when you set up an account or profile in an application.
“Data not linked to you” is data that, according to Apple, cannot be linked to a user’s identity, such as geographic location or browser history.
These new labels aren’t the end of Apple’s biggest privacy roll. In early 2021, the company plans to ask users to consent to being tracked for advertising purposes by specific apps.
Read more: Apple is ready to rewrite its privacy rules for advertisers – here’s what’s at stake for all gamers
Both features were supposed to launch fully with iOS14 this summer, but Apple delayed the launch after developers, including Facebook, complained that they would destroy ad revenue.
Online privacy nonprofit organization the Mozilla Foundation on Monday praised the upcoming feature and urged Apple to move on. “We need to ensure that the company stays strong and provides iPhone users with this enhanced privacy feature as soon as possible,” the foundation wrote, asking signatories of a petition to support the feature.
