iOS 14 Tracking

Overview

In an effort to give more control to iOS users, Apple has made several more reassuring improvements through their iOS14 update to user privacy by giving more fine-grained indicators of both when and why user data is being used by apps on their devices. Originally due to be launched in Autumn this year, Apple has now delayed its Ad anti-tracking features until 2021 due to increasing pressure from 3rd parties, including Facebook. Apple cites "we want to give developers the time they need to make the necessary changes." Still, this will result in serious impacts for existing analytics and compliance features when these changes come into play next year.

Privacy Declaration

Thanks to iOS14, all applications on the App Store will be required to describe what data they collect from a user and whether it is used for tracking. This includes third party libraries, so it is imperative that developers know exactly what analytics/fingerprinting libraries are collected.

Permission to Track

Tracking is a valuable tool as it gives creators a detailed view of how users use their application. With iOS14, users will now receive a system prompt from Apple, asking for consent to track them or access their “identifier for advertisers on iPhones” (IDFA). If users do not give their permission, advertisers will no longer have visibility of whose phone is whose, so users can remain completely anonymous. This has big ramifications for most apps as tracking is used to prioritise the development of new features or improvements to existing features. Moreover, this will impact the quality of data collected from various 3rd party SDK’s many have integrated into their LMA apps (most notably, Google Analytics and Firebase).

Although opting out of IDFA has been an option for iOS users in the past, this was a universal setting hidden inside the settings screen, meaning a user would need to search for it deliberately. With iOS14, there will be an explicit permission request for each app.

Since Apple allows developers to define a reason for why the tracking permission is required, this reason must be well-thought-out, otherwise, users will not be incentivised to allow themselves to be tracked. If a sizeable majority of users deny this permission, then apps will need to use other methods to track users.

If you are interested in more details about this topic, or wish to enquire about our iOS14 Consultancy workshops, please do contact us at hello@mkodo.com.