Apple to delay privacy change threatening Facebook, mobile ad market

One thing that removes a lot of credibility from Apple&#x27;s &quot;for the good of the user&quot; communication on this is that they broke out the personalization for their own ad network as an option, put it in a different location, and made it opt-out instead of opt-in.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;johnkoetsier&#x2F;2020&#x2F;08&#x2F;07&#x2F;apple-ad-network-gets-special-privileges-that-facebook-google-wont-on-ios14&#x2F;#4d31d1dc7515" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;johnkoetsier&#x2F;2020&#x2F;08&#x2F;07&#x2F;apple-a...</a>

(Re-posting on this thread)<p>What a bummer! As an iOS user, I was eagerly looking forward to this feature, wanting to tell others about it and how the upgrade to iOS 14 would be worth it just to clearly expose apps that want to track users.<p>I already have ad tracking limited in my settings (Settings-&gt;Privacy-&gt;Limit Ad Tracking), but that was something I had to explicitly turn on, and there’s no notice on which apps use the ID for advertising.

I understand why they delayed, and it may be the right decision. However, tracking-by-default is a dark pattern in software, and it needs to be driven out.<p>In no other domain is implicit, cross-arena tracking by default acceptable. Computers _should be_ no exception.

Given the App Store antitrust lawsuit and &quot;big bully&quot; PR issue that Apple is facing, they probably realize that now would be a terrible timing for them to flex their muscles and crush a multi-billion dollar ecosystem (even if it&#x27;s the ethical thing to do).<p>Facebook&#x27;s concern isn&#x27;t oriented around their revenue - it&#x27;s about the 3rd party advertising ecosystem on mobile in general ($2B of FB&#x27;s $80B revenue). FB and Google will take a small hit from their 3rd party mobile ad networks going away, but they still have their dominant 1st party businesses to fall back on.<p>Who this really hurts are the apps that don&#x27;t directly sell their own ads and rely on a 3rd party network to monetize. Those apps&#x27; revenues will be chopped in half overnight, sending a shockwave throughout the entire mobile ecosystem.<p>FB and Google get poked in one eye, but most ad-supported apps will be blinded.

Apple&#x27;s blog post about their plans:<p>&quot;We are committed to ensuring users can choose whether or not they allow an app to track them. To give developers time to make necessary changes, apps will be required to obtain permission to track users starting early next year. More information, including an update to the App Store Review Guidelines, will follow this fall.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.apple.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;?id=hx9s63c5" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.apple.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;?id=hx9s63c5</a>

Here&#x27;s the technical detail that everyone seems to be missing: IDFA is an Apple API.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.apple.com&#x2F;documentation&#x2F;adsupport&#x2F;asidentifiermanager&#x2F;1614151-advertisingidentifier" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.apple.com&#x2F;documentation&#x2F;adsupport&#x2F;asidenti...</a><p>&quot;The advertisingIdentifier is an alphanumeric string unique to each device, that you only use for advertising.&quot;<p>Apple created an API for advertisers that gives them a unique identifier, specifically for the purpose of tracking users. This has been available since iOS 6, released in 2012.<p>Shame, shame on advertisers for using the thing that Apple made for them to use!<p>If Apple cares so much about privacy, why did they make this in the first place? Where has Apple been for the past 8 years?

As much as I like iOS in this regard, it’s a shame Apple felt this threatened to delay this feature. I’m sure privacy is a high priority to Apple but when it comes to money, expect them to do this more often. Privacy users are already taking things into their own hands anyway, so this only hurts the tech novices.<p>Edit: It’s funny how on HN, you can tell the ones who get triggered when you say something disparaging about adtech. Just interesting to see here vs other tech media outlets.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall in that meeting.<p>Having already pissed off the advertisers, Apple felt threatened enough to turn around and alienate its power users.<p>Couldn&#x27;t have been an easy decision...

While the delay does disappoint me as a user, I can definitely understand the &quot;give developers more time&quot; angle. It seems doubtful to me that big ad tech hasn&#x27;t already been working on ways to circumvent this policy and it feels like a few extra months won&#x27;t exactly make a world of difference for them. I do hope this gives the &quot;little guy&quot; more time to rethink Ad strategy to not involve tracking.

This is a change that will take an existing setting and make sure the user is aware of it.<p>If you want to flip the switch right now for all third party apps:<p>Go to Settings &gt; Privacy &gt; Advertising. Turn on Limit Ad Tracking.

A cynical take is that all these ad platforms drive a ton of app installs for Apple and create stickiness on iOS. Without all these targeted ads, it will decrease app downloads and with the App Store already under such scrutiny they decided to measure twice and cut once.

That‘s really sad. I thought only a company like Apple has the financial power and the balls to push back the ads industry. Apparently not.

Bad Apple.<p>What was Facebook going to do? Pull out of iOS? They had all the power.

What will really happen - apps won&#x27;t work without accepting tracking. So technically users will be given a choice, and in practice there will be none. Just like now - &quot;Oh, you don&#x27;t want to give us your contacts, sms, location and all photos? Fine, here is an app with every function disabled. You want to actually use the app? Give us permissions.&quot;

Just as they put this ad online <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=-l61NE0eqkw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=-l61NE0eqkw</a> ... &quot;Privacy. That’s iPhone. – Over Sharing&quot;

No! I was enjoying the idea of being able to deny every app that asks. Oh well.

Apple has a massive user base now, I imagine they are preparing to make sure users stay in their ecosystem for everything. I won’t be surprised if they eventually use their own Siri search service instead of google as the default. Once they have all of the users locked in to their ecosystem I think apple’s own ad network will eventually be touted as “secure” and Apple will avoid antitrust scrutiny because everyone opts in to this ecosystem, voluntarily paying higher prices for access. It’s pretty genius really.

I cringe reading the deluded opinions from people in this thread that clearly do not understand the impact on the app ecosystem, let alone how ad tech works.<p>I&#x27;d liken it to reading a post on mumsnet.com with 100+ middle aged women arguing about 5g.

Any chance a cheque has been written behind closed doors here?

A couple influencers these days couple make a viral video on how to go into settings and switch this off and then you&#x27;ve effectively got the update anyway.

Is anything changing except the timeline? Pushing things forward a quarter is not really a big deal if we&#x27;re still getting the privacy improvements.

As a current Android user, this was one of the driving reasons I was considering coming back to Apple. Maybe I&#x27;ll switch &quot;early next year&quot;.

I think with the Epic battle and the rumors that Google is about to head to court is probably the reason that shook em to hold off on this.

This is unfortunate. Adtech is a cancer. We don&#x27;t need to give it time to adapt, we need to shut it down.

So did Apple just bully Facebook into those additional election season changes?

Zuck probably begged Tim

One, if not the main, feature to upgrade to iOS 14 is now delayed to any of the 365 days of 2021. Clear message: &quot;Save adtech and continue to screw your customers&quot;. Bravo Apple, Bravo!!