For example, advertisers can use a method called fingerprinting. 2 is where things also get slightly complicated.Īd-tech companies already have many ways to follow us beyond Apple’s device identifier. The second is that we communicate to the app developer that, broadly speaking, we don’t want our information to be tracked and shared with anyone in any way. The first is that Apple disables the app from using an Apple device identifier, a random string of letters and numbers that is assigned to our iPhones and is used to track our activities across apps and websites. When we select “Ask App Not to Track,” two things happen. Only a few developers have been testing the pop-up window with the public, so my findings about how well the privacy feature works have been limited. It could simply push developers and ad-technology firms to find loopholes so they can continue tracking people in different ways, she and others said.įor about two months, I have been testing early versions of iOS 14.5 to get acclimated with the new privacy control and other new features. Gebhart and other privacy experts said Apple’s new feature might not be enough to put an end to shady tracking on iPhones. “This is a huge step in the right direction, if only because it’s making Facebook sweat,” said Gennie Gebhart, a director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit.īut, she added, “one big question is: Will it work?” (Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has disputed that his company’s business will be hurt by Apple’s policy.) If we choose not to let Facebook track us, it will be harder for the company to see what we are shopping for or doing inside other apps, which will make it more difficult for brands to target us with ads. A big motivator, of course, was that the privacy setting could hurt Facebook’s own business.

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