As somebody who actually has first hand knowledge of this issue (I wrote and designed the tracking for a major iOS ad network), I can say that this is an incredibly misleading article.<p>Here's what's <i>actually</i> going on:<p>- Apple has deprecated the UDID. We're still allowed to use it for a while, but in the long term it's going away.<p>- Apple has created a new identifier (the IFA), specifically for the use case of advertising. This identifier uniquely identifies a device across apps, but beyond that provides no information about the device or its user.<p>- This ID comes with strings. There's an option in Preferences to "Limit Ad Tracking." The terms and conditions specify that when this option is enabled, we still get access to the ID, but we are only allowed to use it for some specific purposes like conversion tracking (eg. making cost-per-action campaigns possible), and fraud detection (eg. preventing fake clicks). We are not allowed to use it to create profiles, or to improve our ad targeting algorithm. We are absolutely not allowed to divulge the information to third parties.<p>Without this, advertising wouldn't be possible. Some may think that that'd be for the best (myself included), but that's an entirely different argument, and you'd have to realize that the market would be very different (No free/freemium apps, and everything would be more expensive). You can't have your cake and eat it too.<p>I expected better from Schneier.
From the bottom of the article:<p>> EDITED TO ADD (10/15): Apple has provided a way to opt out of the targeted ads and also to disable the location information being sent.<p>Ok, why is that "edited to add"? Seriously. The page he links to on apple.com says it was last modified more than a month prior. Why did Schneier post his article, get some hits, and only then add this little tidbit which basically turns the whole thing into a non-story? Couldn't he have researched it all up front before posting the story? The page on apple.com is the <i>very first hit</i> for "iAd opt out" on Google. It's just beyond lazy to have posted this story without having done that search first.<p>I realize Schneier is a bit of a sacred cow in most tech circles, but this seriously just smacks of sensationalism:<p>"OMG Company X does something horrible!"<p>* wait for pageviews to roll in *<p>"EDIT: Eh, not really. Shoulda Googled first."<p>Come on. Really.
Just to be clear, Apple used to allow the use of the UDID for tacking which was directly tied to your device and non-deletable.<p>They now use an anonymous, temporary, random ID that can be turned off.<p>How is this not an improvement?
From high horse: Well one more reason Android is better than iOS.<p>Coming down from high horse: Oh crap, my phone's software is programmed by an advertising company...<p>Conclusion: My life is being bought and sold out of my control.
4 weeks ago:<p>> "Apple adds new "Limit Ad Tracking" feature to iOS 6"<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545602" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545602</a><p>3 weeks ago:<p>> "Google implements Apple's Ad Identifier for mobile tracking choice"<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4581781" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4581781</a><p>Both hacker news submissions have zero comments. Why is it that a month ago no one cared, but now everyone is grabbing his tin-foil hat?<p>Also I am pretty sure at least some of the more extensive iOS 6 reviews have mentioned the new "limit Ad tracking" feature. And aren't we presumed to be developers who uses this stuff? I did know that Apple had a replacement for the UDID.<p>PS:
On Schneiers blog one commentator claims that he/she was notified of the Ad tracking by a prompt in the iOS update. Sadly I have no updateable iOS 5 device here to examine that. But I think this was only an info for the new privacy pane, wasn't it?
FWIW, The learn more link in Settings-> General -> About -> Advertising says "iOS 6 introduces the Advertising Identifier, a non-permanent, non-personal, device identifier, that apps will use to give you more control over advertisers’ ability to use tracking methods. If you choose to limit ad tracking, apps are not permitted to use the Advertising Identifier to serve you targeted ads. In the future all apps will be required to use the Advertising Identifier. However, until then you may still receive targeted ads."
"For the last few months, iPhone users have enjoyed an unusual environment..."<p>Am I the only one who finds that humourous? An "unusual" environment? What exactly is "normal" about tracking people's movements in the name of convincing advertisers to pay you?<p>This briefly enjoyed environment should not be unusual. It is the one we've lived in for hundreds of years. It should be the norm. iAd should be _opt-in_ not opt-out. There are no valid arguments to the contrary that are not motivated out of just a tad bit too much greed, the unhealthy kind.<p>(Why do I say the greed is excessive and unhealthy? Because Apple has already sold a highly marked up device composed of cheap electronics and booked that revenue. But this is apparently not enough. The casualty of this greed is the consumer's basic notions of privacy. That price is arguably far too high for anyone to pay to any company in return for "helpful suggestions" of products and services they _might_ want, based on seller guesswork. Apple made a fortune selling iPods. They didn't need to track users' listening preferences to do it. There are limits to what is reasonable.)
It's always a quandary--I will most likely be seeing ads, so would I rather that they are targeted to me and possibly even helpful, or do I want to tighten down as much as possible all possible data dumps of me?<p>I'm still trying to figure out when I want to turn off these sorts of things, versus when I'd rather keep them on.
<i>For the last few months, iPhone users have enjoyed an unusual environment in which advertisers have been largely unable to track and target them in any meaningful way.</i><p>This is completely false. It hasn't changed at all in any meaningful way.
Advertisers do not need to rely on the UDID(which is still widely used) to track you since all that matters is they have a unique key they can associate with the hardware. The MAC address does the same thing and there are a handful of other options that are close enough for what they care about.
Apple actually messed up the IDFA for users that update from iOS 5 to 6 (over wifi). All these users are assigned an IDFA number of 0000000. Users that are on the new iPhone 5 or updated from iOS 5 to 6 via a network connection have a valid IDFA number.
Are you kidding me? Regardless of privacy, this is incredibly useful. I would love having even the slightest amount relevance with the iAds popping up on my iAds.
From Apple's press release <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Location-Data.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Locat...</a><p><pre><code> 1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone.
Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.</code></pre>
update to the linked article...
"EDITED TO ADD (10/15): Apple has provided a way to opt out of the targeted ads and also to disable the location information being sent."
Another case of how Apple doesn't care about its customers. They offer the opt-out option but turn the service on by default and don't notify anyone.<p>Good thing (for Apple) most of their customers have had too much koolaid to care.