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As Steve Jobs once said, “Who wants a pop-up? (…) It’s crazy.” Or were you referring to the iPhone stylus? Either way, if you’re an avid app downloader, you’ll probably be annoyed by the amount of app tracking prompts you see. You know, the one that asks if you want the app to “track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites.” I tap “Don’t let apps track me” to move on, but after a few minutes the same thing appears in another app.
You’ll be glad to know that there’s a way to automatically set your iPhone to the default “No” and never see these prompts again…
you are the product
This is Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework working behind the scenes. Introduced in iOS 14.5, if an app wants to access a device’s Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) to track users across other apps or websites, it must first ask. This was a huge blow to Facebook and Instagram at the time, which even encouraged users to enable tracking in order to keep the apps “free.” The company lost an estimated $12.8 billion in 2022 alone due to the ATT implementation in iOS 14.5.
More importantly, this was a huge benefit for user privacy at the time. Previously, apps could collect information about your age, gender, location, usage patterns, purchases, browsing habits, ads you clicked, and more for free. This is a treasure trove of data for brokers looking to build your profile with targeted advertising.
Currently, device fingerprinting is the most widely used method, collecting details such as screen size, OS version, and time zone. Apps will also switch to contextual ads, tracking user behavior within apps instead of across apps.
Overall, neither is preferable to obtaining the user’s IDFA. IDFA is still sold to ad networks at high prices. Protect your anonymity.
Fixed to automatically default to “No”
It’s important to note that toggling this setting off doesn’t just hide the prompt. Instructs the operating system to automatically deny requests on the user’s behalf.
go to Settings > Privacy & Security > TrackingFlip it and select ““Allow tracking requests by apps” Switch off.
That’s really all. Now every app on your iPhone can automatically answer “no” the moment you try to ask a question.
For developers, the API returns a denied permission status. Users will be denied tracking before being prompted.
Pro tips for a quieter, more private experience on your iPhone.
Security Bite is 9to5Mac’s weekly show that takes a deep dive into the world of Apple security. Every week, Arin Waichulis uncovers new threats, privacy tips and concerns, vulnerabilities, and more in an ecosystem of more than 2 billion devices.
Fforget it: Twitter/XLinkedIn, Thread
