Apple has announced that in the coming weeks, it will start asking users about their privacy preferences. Apps that sell user data to third parties must first ask for permission to do so.
The new policy will take effect sometime in the coming weeks, writes Reuters. To be exact, the mandatory request for permission to share personal data with third parties will start as soon as iOS 14.5 is released. However, Apple has not yet given an exact date that this update will be released.
With the new policy, apps that share user data with third parties for marketing purposes will have to ask for permission first. Users will see a similar pop-up to when an app wants to use the camera or GPS, for example.
Less advertising revenue
Experts in the advertising industry fear that such a notification will result in many people not giving their permission to share this data. Facebook, in particular, has fought hard against the measure. The social medium claims that this will make it harder for small advertisers to reach their desired target group. Google was no fan either and, for some mysterious reason, halted updates to its iOS apps for three months.
Eventually, Facebook decided to cooperate because otherwise, users would no longer have access to its app. Apple warned in December that apps that did not adapt to the new policy would be removed from the App Store.
First developers already implemented privacy pop-ups
Apple had already announced the new policy in June last year, but in September, it announced that it would postpone the implementation. This would give advertisers more time to adapt. According to Reuters, some developers have already started showing the pop-up.
Alternative tools
For the advertisers who will have a harder time because of this, Apple has made a number of alternative tools available. For instance, Apple has created a tool for developers who advertise another app in their app. With this, the developers can see how many people have installed the app after having seen the advertising campaign. Apple also offers the possibility to show advertisers how many times an ad has been clicked on that links to a website. In both cases, no information about specific users is shared.
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