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Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, speaks during a new product announcement at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, June 4, 2018 in San Jose, California.
Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP
Starting next year, Apple will remove apps from its App Store that track users without first receiving permission, a move that promises to tighten the privacy of iPhone users but is likely to shake up the app advertising industry.
To target ads and measure how effective they are, app developers and other industry players today often use an Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), or a string of letters and numbers that is different on every Apple device.
In an update to the iPhone operating system expected “early next year,” app makers will be forced to ask for permission to access a user’s IDFA through a pop-up window. A significant portion of users are likely to opt out, reducing the effectiveness and profitability of targeted ads. The change takes a privacy option that was previously buried in settings and puts it front and center when users open each app.
On Tuesday, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said that apps that don’t meet the new requirements, which Apple calls Application Tracking Transparency (ATT), can be removed from the App Store, which is the only way to install software. on an iPhone.
The move pits app developers who make money through targeted ads against Apple, which has increasingly incorporated privacy features into its products as a way to differentiate them from the competition. Critics include Facebook, which said the change could cut revenue by 50% at one of its advertising businesses.
“Some in the advertising industry are lobbying against these efforts, claiming that ATT will drastically harm businesses with advertising, but we expect the industry to adapt as it did when we introduced smart tracking prevention, providing effective advertising without invasive tracking, “said Federighi. in a speech at a European conference on privacy.
Some follow-up examples that app creators should get user permission before doing so, according to Apple:
- Show targeted ads in apps based on user data collected from third-party websites and apps.
- Share device location data or email lists with a data broker.
- Share a list of emails, advertising IDs, or other IDs with a third-party advertising network that uses the information to redirect those users to other developers’ applications or to find similar users.
“At the beginning of next year, we will begin to require that all applications that want to do that obtain the explicit permission of their users, and developers who do not comply with that standard can remove their applications from the App Store,” said Federighi.
The disclosure that Apple may remove non-compliant apps also raises the stakes for a planned date early next year, when app developers will have to explicitly ask for permission to use IDFA for tracking, which forces developers to rebuild part of their ad targeting systems to comply. with Apple’s requirements.
Apple iPhones account for just over 25% of smartphones worldwide, according to StatCounter, but their market share is higher in countries like the United States. Additionally, iPhone users are often richer and considered more valuable customers. If app developers are removed from the App Store, they will lose a significant market.
Apple’s ATT is the latest in a line of moves reducing advertisers’ ability to collect data on iPhone users. In 2017, Apple introduced a feature called ITP that used machine learning to block ad trackers in Apple’s Safari browser. On Tuesday, Apple began requiring app developers to submit a detailed questionnaire about their privacy practices and the data they and their third-party partners collect before being approved on the App Store.
Apple has been criticized on both sides of the IDFA problem. In France, advertising companies and publishers filed a competition lawsuit in October alleging that IDFA’s planned withdrawal uses privacy as a cover for anti-competitive conduct that hurts smaller technology companies.
Last month, Apple was also affected by complaints from activists in Europe that IDFA, the current system, does not comply with European privacy laws.
“We postponed the launch of ATT early next year to give developers the time they indicated they needed to properly update their data systems and practices, but we remain fully committed to ATT and our expansive approach to privacy protections,” Jane Horvath, Apple’s senior chief privacy officer, said in response.
Apple has not publicly said when the ATT will go into effect.
