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I expect that there is some part of that 4% -- people like me -- who have the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" option enabled so that they can see WHICH apps are trying to track. Leaving the option turned off is great, and I recommend this for most people, but I want to know who's trying to track before I decline them. So far my list of apps that have asked (and been declined) is:

ESPN
Facebook
Headphones (Sony Headphones Connect app -- why is THIS app trying to track?)
Hulu
Instagram
 
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Apple limiting specific advertising is likely the best advertisement for Apple itself :) and we should be very glad for this! Some people act like "I have nothing to hide" or don't really care. But just step back for a moment and observe in what kind of world we live in. We never asked for advertisement in our lives, it just happened. Slowly but steadily we're advancing more towards a '1984' or 'Big Brother'-world when tracking is a thing.

When firms like Facebook and Google get all desperate, actively battle for tracking and gathering user-data because they have based their whole business model on it as an argument, just have to face they have chosen a wrong business model.
Advancing more toward?!?
Homie, we’re there! 🤪

Look, all businesses require profits to exist. I get, and support, the concept. How businesses go about profiting is, for me, at the heart of the issue/opportunity.

Are you a business that is thoughtful, innovative: creating and providing services and products consumers want (we’ll keep the “to the benefit of society” aspect out, for now)? Or are you lazy, deceitful and capitalizing on humans’ laziness and fears (we’ll keep the “to the detriment of society” aspect out, for now)?

This is what Apple, and its users, have been saying, demanding, expecting and supporting all along: give us vetted, secure products and experiences that make our existence a little bit better. As a bonus, we’ll pay for those aspects. The Facebooks and Googles of the world DID chose the wrong business model and it is starting to get the focus and attention it deserves. It’s kindergarten, golden rule territory: don’t be a d!@k. Period. While Google tried the "don’t be evil” tag line, it was just that: a tag line. It did not at all align with their reality and so they wisely walked away from that one.

The whole “walled garden bad, squashes innovation” is utter crap. One: simply look no further than who makes that claim. Still need more? Two: look at their business model. If “innovation” means “tracking and selling your online activity and data to any faceless individual or company too lazy and/or incompetent to create something of actual value so they can exist/thrive on your purchased data,” the wall of my garden couldn’t be high enough. I don’t want to be your product. Give me a reason to engage and I’ll support. But don’t say you do all of these amazing things, for free, to mask your entire deceitfully business model. That’s dirty. “Free” comes at a price. It always has. Because that price is largely invisible, repackaged as “convenience” or (worse?) “connection,” many people are apparently ok with that business model. I’m not. And as our lives, banking, medical and every personal document, preference, and behavior is digitized, it has never been more imperative our digital rights receive the same - if not more - vigorous protection than our analog lives have (even those are in serious need of updating for relevance).

It’s bizarre that people want fences and walls around their homes and countries to keep out “the bad guys,” but leave their homes unlocked and roll out the welcome mat for actual bad guys and companies. Makes. No. Sense. To each their own, but dang…

Clearly someone needs more coffee. 😂
 
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You want to be invisible? That’s easy, just need to get this accessory for your phone and no one will be able to track you again:
Wow a link to a product on Amazon. Just another big tech data collector company.
 
Why would anyone ever choose to turn on tracking? Open to any use cases....
I left it on with the ability to track me because we’re gonna see ads either way, I’d rather see ads that are relevant to things I might actually buy. I’m a firm believer that if you truly value your privacy you should just get an old flip phone or even a burner phone that you don’t have have attached to your name or social security. Side note, even though you turned you’s off, if anyone who has your phone number in their contacts left the tracking ability on I believe Facebook can still get some even if just a tiny bit of information about you since they have access to our contacts hahaha
 
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Meh , I left mine on and have allowed all apps to track me, I actually like getting ads for relevant things I might actually buy, or being notified when a discount is available at stores I might frequent. 95.5% of the population is not that important and live absolutely mundane lives but have some weird thought that the world will somehow cause their lives to come crashing down lol. There is an easy fix to allowing companies to track you in order to benefit your daily lives and that is don’t store information on your phone or post things online that you wouldn’t want you mother to find out or know about you. 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
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Posting to public forums is one of the sure fire ways to not be invisible, though. There ARE folks that see being invisible online as VERY important. There’s lots of them out there, but they’re not going to pop in and say, “OH yeah, I’ve been invisible for 14 years now!” and spoil their record :)
I agree and I was one of those people for years, but I’m tired of tech companies collecting data without real consent. I’m sorry but having a legal team write terms of use that only 15% of the population can understand isn’t consent. People don’t want to be tracked/stalked like animals. And that is what 98% of tech companies do.
 
I am still receiving Push Notification based on certain interactions / events triggered by certain apps. How can they know what I am doing inside of their app and thus send me a Push Notification if tracking is no longer allowed?
Tracking is more for how to you put it cross site tracking. It is not stopping tracking of a single app. That is an easy ID to generated and just use that ID for every install. Now it completely worthless to track it between apps but great for a single app.
 
Facebook doesn’t get it. We’re not loyal to them.

I wish Apple would make a social network like Facebook was when it first started. No companies, just people.
Bruh 😂

Are you serious, so you want an app that only Apple users use 😂. Imagine for a second if Twitter did this
 
if I am going to see ads, i prefer ones targeted towards me.

I know I am in the minority, but that’s the way I feel about it.
It is not the ads that I worry about. It is the other infomations that is a lot deeper and scarier. Facebook is pretty scummy over all as a company so I have no problem cutting them off from as much info as possible. Sadly I need facebook but does not mean I can not limit their access to data.
 
If developers can no longer make money from ad supported iOS apps, they will either have to make them subscription only or remove the apps and focus on Android and Web based apps instead.
 
Tried to toggle it on, in 14.5 so I could choose on a per app basis - if I felt the app developer merited it. Of course it didn't work as we know with the 14.5 bug.

Installed 14.5.1 - still doesn't work for me, so its still toggled off.
In addition to general settings, I believe this choice is made on an app by app basis. I received a prompt request from both FB and IG. Of course I responded "not on your life" 😉
 
Why? What about allowing tracking by default is the "correct" default rule disabling it by default is "wrong"? I could equally argue that enabling tracking by default for many years was the "wrong" approach because consumers shouldn't be allowed to be tracked without explicit consent, and failing to toggle a (relatively) hidden off switch isn't meaningful consent. But even if you don't buy that argument, please make one that says "consumers should have to affirmatively decline to be tracked". Otherwise at best either default rule is reasonable and Apple has just chosen a different one than it had in the past.
I agree the argument can go both ways equally, and also agree that it was "wrong" before. As you stated in the statement I bolded above, this is exactly the purpose of iOS 14.5. Each and every app that uses tracking is now required to get consent from the user. The user can choose to opt out there, or if they don't want the prompts anymore, they can go into Settings and disable it for everything. So at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if it's enabled by default since apps still cannot use your tracking information until it prompts you to allow or deny. It basically works the same way as how Location Services work.

Speaking of Location Services, I believe the user chooses to enable or disable this when setting up a new iOS device. Have they done the same thing for Tracking as well? I guess I will find out in a few weeks.
 
I expect most operating systems to work like this in the future, like incognito browsers become the default.
Um no, the internet works off of ads, if everyone took the Apple path the internet would suck and you would pay for everything on it "Including MacRumors"

Ads are how companies stay in business
 
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If Facebook wants to play the free card I’ll gladly delete my account and request a refund on all the free data they collected.
Well I don't think you get much sypathy for that claim tho, for moust people $0 payment = free (any collected data does not enter into it as it represents no cashflow to them). I don't agrre in this view but I think we might be in the minority here
 
And how soon before we launch an app or visit a website where we get the pop-up warning to "Turn on tracking or else the app/web site won't work."

They already do this to us when they discover we've got a very good set of Ad Blockers on every web browser, and, yes, it does tick them off. And rather than whitelist them, I usually am able to open the very same website page in another browser. When I do disable the Ad Blockers, or whitelist the site, I am amazed at what suddenly shows up on my screen.

And then I promptly re-enable the Ad Blocker. Ugh! It's their own fault we use Ad Blockers, and it's their own fault that Apple has made tracking more difficult.

I use Brave browser, but I also use NextDNS for additional blocking. If I need to disable ad blocking in Brave to view a website, most ads are still filtered by NextDNS.
 


An early look at an ongoing analysis of Apple's App Tracking Transparency suggests that the vast majority of iPhone users are leaving app tracking disabled since the feature went live on April 26 with the release of iOS 14.5.

tracking-disabled-ios-14-5.jpg

According to the latest data from analytics firm Flurry, just 4% of iPhone users in the U.S. have actively chosen to opt into app tracking after updating their device to iOS 14.5. The data is based on a sampling of 2.5 million daily mobile active users.

When looking at users worldwide who allow app tracking, the figure rises to 12% of users in a 5.3 million user sample size.

att-opt-out-flurry-analytics1.jpg

With the release of iOS 14.5, apps must now ask for and receive user permission before they can access a device's random advertising identifier, which is used to track user activity across apps and websites. Users can either enable or disable the ability for apps to ask to track them. Apple disables the setting by default.

Since the update almost two weeks ago, Flurry's figures show a stable rate of app-tracking opt-outs, with the worldwide figure hovering between 11-13%, and 2-5% in the U.S. The challenge for the personalized ads market will be significant if the first two weeks end up reflecting a long-term trend.

att-opt-out-flurry-analytics2.jpg

Facebook, a vociferous opponent of ATT, has already started attempting to convince users that they must enable tracking in iOS 14.5 if they want to help keep Facebook and Instagram "free of charge." That sentiment would seem to go against the social network's earlier claim that ATT will have a "manageable" impact on its business and could even benefit Facebook in the long term.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across 2 billion mobile devices per month. Flurry intends to update its figures every weekday for the daily opt-in rate as well as the share of users that apps cannot ask to track, both in the U.S. and globally.

Article Link: Analytics Suggest 96% of Users Leave App Tracking Disabled in iOS 14.5
I get enough spam to choke a spammer and of course on the iPhone I do have Robokiller that takes care of that but having the option whether to be tracked or not, I am going with not, except for those very few I do need it done.
 
Have a control number of iPhones where the default is to allow tracking and see how many of those make the effort to turn it off. This might be more of an indication that people leave features alone as much as possible at whatever the default is rather than proof that they care one way or the other about the privacy feature.
 
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I wonder how many of that 4% were done by accident or not realizing what was going on?

I realize some companies like Facebook hate this but this is proof that the vast majority of iOS users like Apple for this reason and want Apple to do this.

At the end of the day Facebook is just one of many tasks users use their phone/tablet for.
 
Opting in to every app that asks, don't want to go back to the early internet where every ad was a viagra ad.
 
Um no, the internet works off of ads, if everyone took the Apple path the internet would suck and you would pay for everything on it "Including MacRumors"

Ads are how companies stay in business
1) It doesn't prevent ads, it prevents tracking outside of the app ostensibly to serve "better" ads but with a lot of other data gathering going on as well.

2) Ads aren't a necessary result of the internet. It's what companies have found to be the best way to support their internet efforts. But it's not the only way. For years there was advertising supported TV. But we also had public television (supported by donations and taxes) and pay television (supported by subscription fees), which still exists. It is quite possible for a site to charge for use/viewing instead of a free price in exchange for ads. Further, one of the strongest reasons why companies adopt the free/ads model is because of the incentives to grow a network, which is a lot easier to do at first when it is "free".
 
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