Apple's New Privacy-Focused Tracking Prompt Appearing for iOS 14 Users [Updated]

[montuori]

Can you go into settings and ask all apps not to track?

I believe you can.

Settings > Privacy > Tracking > Allow Apps to Request to Track

According to the "Learn more...":

"When you disable Allow Apps to Ask to Track, any app that attempts to ask for your permission will be blocked from asking and automatically informed that you have requested not to be tracked."

 

[sdz]

Can you go into settings and ask all apps not to track?

Genially idea.

 

[justperry]

Yes, it is very squishy, imprecise language. It makes me wonder how effective it is that they would use such language.

iOS is full of vague language in Settings.

 

[justperry]

I believe you can.

Settings > Privacy > Tracking > Allow Apps to Request to Track

According to the "Learn more...":

"When you disable Allow Apps to Ask to Track, any app that attempts to ask for your permission will be blocked from asking and automatically informed that you have reqeust not to be tracked."

Nope, "request not to be tracked" is different, webpages/providers can still ignore this, not the new policy, if they ignore it they could be banned from the AppStore.

I agree with some others here, the text should not say "ask App not to track", it should have buttons to allow or deny.

 

[oneMadRssn]

"Ask app not to track." Shouldn't that be "Block app from tracking." Is it blocking or not?

I think the issue is Apple cannot guarantee the app isn't going to track you some other way after Apple block currently-known tracking methods. Facebook and others will get creative, and for a while this will be a cat-and-mouse game between Facebook et al and Apple.

 

[justperry]

I think the issue is Apple cannot guarantee the app isn't going to track you some other way after Apple block currently-known tracking methods. Facebook and others will get creative, and for a while this will be a cat-and-mouse game between Facebook et al and Apple.

Sure they can, the rule is... not to track, whether that is with old methods or new, makes no difference.
Block the Dev from the Appstore after violations, whether or not Devs find new ways or not.

 

[freakomac]

Just release it already! I want to know which apps do this and block them right away.

 

[thedarkhalf]

I want to click "Allow" and then do some crazy random things that will both shock and surprise them.

Clickbait Version: Click "allow" and then do 10 crazy things! Number 6 will shock and surprise them!

 

[planteater]

I think the issue is Apple cannot guarantee the app isn't going to track you some other way after Apple block currently-known tracking methods. Facebook and others will get creative, and for a while this will be a cat-and-mouse game between Facebook et al and Apple.

Yes, and if that is the case, I hope this does not turn into a cat and mouse game of app vendors trying to find means around it, causing Apple to have to respond and make corrections. If that is the case, hopefully Apple can make changes to the methods being used so that it is a definite control, either on or off.

 

[obamtl]

Just might jump on the 14.4 beta just to stop Facebook tracking me!

 

[DanTSX]

2020......the year we have to be paranoid that the dribbleball league is spying on us.....



I do appreciate this move by apple. But only now distrust them less than other corporations (and their enablers in various government entities)

 

[ghanwani]

Get ready for a flurry of apologies of the form:

“We didn’t mean to track user activity across apps. We value our customers and respect their privacy. The bug in our app will be fixed shortly. Thank you for putting your trust in us and for your continued patronage!”

 

[Saturn007]

Tracking should be illegal. Period. Full stop.

It should incur the same penalties as stalking, identity theft, and cyber crimes. If Facebook still wants to track us, Zuckerberg has to be willing to personally face charges, trial, fines, and jail time.

If you should think tracking is acceptable in any form, then these companies should be required to *pay* the users they are tracking a fixed percentage of the revenue they receive — say, for example, just off the top of my head , 15% or 30%, depending on how big a company it is and how extensive or egregious the tracking is.

Any app developer who uses a Facebook or Google embedded SDK or their tracking services should face the same penalties.

The extent of tracking is staggering. This is old news to many, but you don't even have to have joined Facebook or have accounts with Google, but they still track you. Go to a news website, or launch a news app, many of which open up embedded web pages, and read a bunch of articles and columns. Then, check your Safari cookies list. It will be chockfull of Facebook, Google, Double Click, and other trackers.

Geoffrey Fowler did a series of investigative reports for The Washington Post on all this tracking — it's worth checking out.

 

[ijordano]

I don't quite understand why the options aren't "Allow" and "Do Not Allow", why "ask not to track"?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Make the iPhone great again by sticking it to small businesses with your app blocking.

Thank you, Apple for your stance on privacy and security, especially with entities like FB around.

 

[eliteoOSX27]

Hopefully there is a list of apps and sites that support this..

 

[jonblatho]

"Ask app not to track." Shouldn't that be "Block app from tracking." Is it blocking or not?

It blocks the only method of cross-app tracking at the system level on iOS — the IDFA — by returning a UUID that’s all zeros instead of the real per-device IDFA. Apps can still do quite a bit of first-party tracking in-app, though (think of all the data Facebook associates with an account just from interactions within Facebook and Instagram), and without auditing the frontend and backend source code there’s really not much Apple can do about that. Also using Facebook as an example, there might also be other avenues for cross-app tracking that involve, say, Facebook SDKs that go into other apps.

 

[anzio]

This prompt can appear in any version of iOS 14 depending on whether the developer makes the call to the API to display the prompt.

iOS 14 offers the IDFA to all apps by default right now, and a future version will require the user to explicitly allow access to it. The prompt can still be displayed to users since iOS 14 launched. Most apps don’t right now though, since the IDFA is always accessible and displaying the prompt offers the choice (rather than just using the IDFA without giving the user the option).

 

[Tchakatak]

I do not think so, from what I've gathered it and app-specific setting ... wish it would.

I actually now have an option that say “allow apps to track”

 

[JimmyBanks6]

How does that work with websites? 🤔

 

[Apple_Robert]

Just might jump on the 14.4 beta just to stop Facebook tracking me!

Do not use FB and then use apps like “Lockdown” and “1Blocker” to help prevent further tracking (along with iOS 14).

 

[Rafagon]

It should not be “ask not to allow” but a firm “deny” button to be clearer.

That's exactly what I said in an earlier comment on a previous article:

Facebook Says Apple's Upcoming Anti-Tracking Prompt is 'More About Profit Than Privacy' [Updated]

In the screenshot, it shows the option "Ask App Not to Track". I don't want to "ask" the app not to track, I simply want to "Deny" the app the request to track. Will that also be an option?

forums.macrumors.com

 

[InGen]

I want to click "Allow" and then do some crazy random things that will both shock and surprise them.

What you'd be allowing them to see is what they're already seeing now without your ability to stop.

 

[Altivec88]

Yes, it is very squishy, imprecise language. It makes me wonder how effective it is that they would use such language.

My guess its worded this way so that Apple can legally cover them selves and put the onus back to the developer. I'm sure Apple has some protections to stop the tracking but I'm equally sure that some developers are going to try to circumvent those. By putting the onus back on the developers by saying that you are asking them not to track you, they can't play dumb and would be willfully opening up themselves up to a law suit if they did happen to find a way to circumvent Apples blocks.

 

[peneaux]

Shouldn't be ASK, should be DENY.

I wonder who in their sane mind would think "yeah, track me!". LOL
I bet those creeps from ad companies use ad blockers and will block as many trackers as possible.