Apple Says iOS 16 Update Coming Soon With Fix for Advertising-Related Issue

[vegetassj4]

What about this human rights violation?

Apple's App Store may have been tracking every tap you make since iOS 14.6

According to two developers, with iOS 14.6, Apple started sending every tap a user makes on the App Store to itself.

bgr.com

Oh my....I thought I was joking (sort of)

https://forums.macrumors.com/media/e00d671e-813e-11e4-b956-00144feabdc0-jpg.878070/

 

[MrMojo1]

I don't ever recall giving Apple permission to track me with their advertising View attachment 2109565

I've turned off everything I can think of, yet Apple is still serving me ads based on how I use my iPhone and certain apps. Doesn't appear there's any way to opt out 100%.

View attachment 2109565

It could be another setting like...
Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking... Turned Off.

But I noticed the same thing you listed under Cellular... System Services.. 'Apple Advertising'.

Guess that the Privacy setting is so 'specific' ads are not based on content based on places we've been to?
Appears that Apple can still generally track users for 'general' ads not 'specific' ads.

 

[sw1tcher]

It could be another setting like...
Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking... Turned Off.

But I noticed the same thing you listed under Cellular... System Services.. 'Apple Advertising'.

Guess that the Privacy setting is so 'specific' ads are not based on content based on places we've been to?
Appears that Apple can still generally track users for 'general' ads not 'specific' ads.

Tracking was turned off since day 1

And just about every Apple app (App Store, Calendar, Camera, News, Safari, Wallet, Weather, etc) is set to "Never" under Settings > Privacy > Location Services, except for Find My, Maps, and Siri

 

[1557750]

Apple says iOS 16 update coming. They also confirmed it will be very helpful for them, but worthless to users.

 

[sdf]

I don't ever recall giving Apple permission to track me with their advertising

That has nothing to do with the claim or my response.

 

[NCPine]

It's 2022, I have advertisements served to me though every platform on my phone (email, app store, phone calls, texts, social, web, etc), and I can't even change the appearance of my icons. Windows 3.1 had this feature in 1992. The most asked for feature for years of all iPhone users is visual customization. Sure, you can change font and icon graphics or layout on Android.

What is the possible justification for the prioritization of work at Apple other than to sell you and your device as an advertising platform? Please give the end consumer something they want and like, not the corporate ad ecosystem.

 

[orbital~debris]

Great, so we're already getting force-fed advertising in previously pristine  apps, now we're seeing a dilution of software engineering effort in order to devote work to features for advertisers instead of customers.

Are we sure we're still the customer, not the product?

 

[Ash Pole]

Apple’s stock has declined 22% this year. iphone sales are down due to inflation and currency exchange rates. Serving up ads is Tim Cook’s plan “B”.

 

[sw1tcher]

Apple’s stock has declined 22% this year. iphone sales are down due to inflation and currency exchange rates. Serving up ads is Tim Cook’s plan “B”.

iPhone 14 and 14 Plus sales may be down because they're just iPhone 13's in disguise while the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max are seeing strong demand but sales are not where they're at due to supply/manufacturing constraints

 

[Apple_Robert]

I will need to ask off work so I can make sure I Apple my undivided attention with this crucial update.

 

[symphony]

aka skynet framework

 

[txscott]

Can't say I'm happy about this Apple Advertising push. I block every ad I can find the technical means to block, from every source. There are no relevant ads as far as I am concerned. They are all waste. Someone will come up with a way to block these ads and I will use it, even if I have to jailbreak.

There is no excuse for this. I paid handsomely for the hardware, I pay for the data, I pay for the services (Apple One). I should not have to see any ads. I am especially mad about the ads (suggested applications) that appear in the health ap. If there is one place that should be sacrosanct on the platform, its is health.

As a side note, I haven't bought an app from App Store in years. All of my needs are covered. I'm not paying a subscription for a calendar, email or calculator app and I don't buy or play games, ever. 99% of what I see ads for is games.

The problem with the App Store is not that there is too little advertising. It is that the universe of interesting apps has been exhausted for the current limits of the hardware. Even the games are all the same, the social media apps are all the same (and equally, horrifically, intrusive), spreadsheets same, calendar apps same, stock apps same, to do lists same, financial apps same. There is truly nothing new under the sun.

 

[GtrDude]

Gone are the days when Apple used to be a good and more honorable company.
Today EVERYTHING is about money!!! Nothing else.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1585076780335263744

 

[tufapshakur]

Anything that improves the holistic ecosystem experience is good news. Apple is right to prioritise fixing bugs like this because they only serve to undermine the appeal of the platforms we all love.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

It just generically says iOS... So are they updating iPhoneOS, iPadOS, or both?

 

[Cole82]

I don't ever recall giving Apple permission to track me with their advertising View attachment 2109565

I've turned off everything I can think of, yet Apple is still serving me ads based on how I use my iPhone and certain apps. Doesn't appear there's any way to opt out 100%.

View attachment 2109565

I mean, at least when Amazon serves you ads on the Kindle they discount the price of the device. Seems like Apple would like to target you with ads while charging you full price for the iPhone (or iDevice). But could you imagine an ad supported version of the iPhone. How many people do you think would go for that just to save a little on the device?

 

[msackey]

Is anyone else even slightly concerned that it might be a privacy issue that's possibly being covered up? I mean, when you don't want someone to know what's going on, you skimp on the details.

Yup. Apple is beginning to lose my confidence in privacy matters. Idiots. When they could be champions for privacy they start creeping into the trend boat like most others are.

 

[svish]

Only for fixing ad related bugs. Apple is paying increased attention to ads.

 

[incoherent_1]

Still getting frequent errors where my phone locks up and says “iPhone is unavailable. Please wait 5 minutes”

Great job, Apple!

 

[Earthnail]

Everyone here is upset that Apple cares about ads. I have a different take.

How did you hear about an app? Well, someone must have told you about it. Maybe you found it on the App Store. A friend told you. Or you saw a post on insta. Ads are as old as businesses, and even the local cafe puts out a small board saying “we’re open”, advertising the different sandwiches they have.

There are good and bad ads. Internet ads became popular because unlike radio or billboard ads, you can measure their effect. If you’re an ad developer, you can measure whether this helps you spread the word of your ad.

Now, online ads have gone completely overboard with this. Measuring success nice, making a complete behavioural profile of a user is creepy. Although, I personally at least would rather see ads for musical instruments than for baby stuff - just fits my situation in life better.

With SkAdNetwork, Apple has taken the power away from ALL OTHER AD NETWORKS out there. I repeat, ALL AD NETWORKS now have to bend to Apple’s will. It’s not just banner ads: even affiliate links, or referral links, are completely broken. Organic growth by user A sharing the app with user B? Not measurable. Crazy.

SkAdNetwork gives you as an advertiser SOME information, but it’s aggregated in groups of users to preserve anonymity. That’s cool. But it also means you need large groups to get any insights.

You know who has large groups? Well, the indie dev shop certainly doesn’t.

With SkAdNetwork 4, Apple gives you more information as your group gets larger. You know who has large groups? …

This is completely ridiculous. Imagine being a small dev shop; the ones that Apple always says the love and support so much. Your entire advertising options are quite broken since three years ago. And now Apple says they broke the ENTIRE STACK?

What the ****.

This update is absolutely urgent. This bug is a massive slap in the face to every developer who tries to create apps on Apple’s platform - in particular the small ones.

 

[fatTribble]

I understand the pushback for more ads and I’m definitely in that group.

But it just says they’re fixing a bug in the ad tracking.

That bug could be a memory leak that causes all kinds of other issues.
It could be causing excessive hits to the network.
Meaning, fixing bugs is good.

 

[unibility]

Yeah? We don’t want them.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Seriously, this is the kind of thing Apple will comment on? They remain silent about everything, including a lot that would be very useful information. They pretend bugs never existed until after they’re patched, if even then.

But problem with the ad network? Make sure we communicate loud and clear about that!

 

[CarAnalogy]

I understand the pushback for more ads and I’m definitely in that group.

But it just says they’re fixing a bug in the ad tracking.

That bug could be a memory leak that causes all kinds of other issues.
It could be causing excessive hits to the network.
Meaning, fixing bugs is good.

Well sure, but the fact they commented about this and nothing else (like the wifi bug etc etc etc) is kind of galling. Shows what they really care about.

 

[CarAnalogy]

1. Apple asks your permission to get usage data.
2. It's only in the App Store, but most importantly…
3. It would be impossible to implement the App Store without server requests for details on the apps you tap.

Yeah that privacy violation sounds an awful lot like the way websites work.