The release of iOS 14.5 last month also marked the debut of App Tracking Transparency. Despite criticism from Facebook and other advertisers, Apple went ahead with the rollout of the feature. App Tracking Transparency will prevent iPhone apps from tracking you without your explicit permission.
Following the release of iOS 14.5, data collected by analytics firm Flurry pointed to 96% of the iPhone users in the US disabling app tracking. This means that an estimated 96% of iPhone users have prevented apps on their phone from tracking them after the release of iOS 14.5. The estimates were based on a sample size of 2.5 million daily mobile active users, so it likely paints an accurate picture. After all, there was a reason why Facebook was so heavily against App Tracking Transparency and even ran full-page newspaper ads criticizing it.
Read: App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14.5 Explained
App Tracking Transparency is the first feature of its kind as no other OS has provided users an option to prevent ads from tracking them. It has in fact been an industry-wide practice as tracking consumers has allowed advertisers to show them targeted ads. The feature will cause a flurry in the advertising industry since it will make targeted advertising difficult and harm advertisers’ revenues.
With iOS 14.5 now out for a couple of weeks, how are you using App Tracking Transparency? Have you disabled it outright for all apps on your iPhone? Or are you deciding this on a per-app basis? Take part in our poll and let us know your thoughts by dropping a comment below.
