A "loose" interpretation of Apple's privacy policy allows apps like Facebook and Snapchat to continue tracking users for targeted advertising even if they have opted out of tracking, the Financial Times reports.
In May, Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency, a feature that allows users to opt out of being tracked by apps and websites for advertising purposes. Seven months after Apple introduced the feature, companies like Snapchat and Facebook are reportedly allowed to continue sharing user-level “signals” from iPhones, provided the data is anonymized and aggregated and not directly linked to specific user profiles. The Financial Times reportedthat Apple's position is the result of an "unacknowledged shift that allows companies to follow a much looser interpretation of the controversial privacy policies." Apple has instructed developers that they "cannot derive data from a device to uniquely identify it," which was interpreted by developers to mean that they can instead observe "signals" and behaviors from groups of users so that tailored advertising can still be shown to those groups.
App tracking on iOS continues
Apple has not explicitly endorsed these techniques, but they allow third parties to track and analyze groups of users, whether or not they have given their consent to user-level tracking. Snapchat investors learned that the company plans to share the data of its 306 million users with advertisers, including those who have asked the app not to track them, so they can get a "more complete, real-time view" of the success of ad campaigns. Facebook is also embarking on a "multi-year effort" to rebuild its advertising infrastructure "with more aggregated or anonymized data," the company's chief executive said. In June, Apple was pressured to tighten its app tracking transparency rules after it found that third parties were using workarounds to identify users who did not consent to being tracked. But there were no changes to looser "probabilistic" methods of user identification. (Photo by yalcin.sonat / Bigstockphoto)
