'Limit Ad Tracking' Popular in U.S. After iOS 10, Global Awareness 'Stagnant'

[MacRumors]

Approximately 18 million iOS users in the United States have turned on Apple's "Limit Ad Tracking" feature in settings, effectively preventing advertisements within apps from being targeted directly at them and their browsing habits. Based on a recent report from Adjust (via Advertising Age), that's now 20 percent of total iOS users in the United States who have LAT turned on.

Although it's been available for users since iOS 6 in 2012, a tweak to the feature in iOS 10 lets users completely avoid what's referred to as an "Identifier for Advertising," which pinpoints devices with a unique ID number to serve up targeted advertisements. With LAT turned on, users now become ghosts to IDFA requests from ad networks, making tracking the behavior of an iOS user "significantly more complicated."

Despite Apple's bolstering of the feature in iOS 10, Adjust's report noted that "on a global level, there's no evidence of an upward trend" of users becoming aware of LAT, which is somewhat hidden in the Privacy sub-menu of Settings.

"If people were more interested in reducing the number of retargeted ads, and if they were aware of the effects of the Limit Ad Tracking settings, we would expect a steadily rising trend throughout the last month as adoption of iOS 10 rises and people become aware of the changes. So far, on a global level, there's no evidence of an upward trend - the global rates are stagnant, at around 18%.

In spite of global stagnation, Adjust mentioned that in certain places -- particularly the United States -- LAT is beginning to become more well-known among consumers. Specifically, following the launch of iOS 10 in September, 2 million people activated LAT for the first time in the U.S.

Among other countries, Germany follows the U.S. in total iOS users with LAT activated (19.3 percent), followed by territories including the United Kingdom (16.5 percent), and Canada (14.4 percent). Places like the Netherlands, with 22 percent, beat out the United States. Countries where privacy concerns are raised see a higher percentage of users opting out of targeted advertising, but as Adjust said, "it's not evenly distributed across countries, and it's additionally not evenly distributed among target audiences."

With the growth of public knowledge surrounding such ad-blocking features, co-founder of Adjust Paul Muller noted that, "this is trending in a direction where it's not just the tech-savvy, ad-allergic crowd any more. Marketers will face a large, distributed and worst of all 'unknown' segment of users, especially in places like Germany and the U.S."

Article Link: 'Limit Ad Tracking' Popular in U.S. After iOS 10, Global Awareness 'Stagnant'

 

[thewebb]

I've had that turned on for years. Surprised it's only at 20% in the US

 

[longofest]

Personally, I like it turned off. If I'm seeing ads, I'd rather ads that I care about than ads that I could care less about.

 

[iTom17]

"Places like the Netherlands, with 22 percent, beat out the United States."

I'm one of the 22%.

 

[Afee]

It's a nice feature to have and I've used it for years, creating a random new one every so often.

Three things I still have an issue with:

1) Loads of iOS and macOS apps use (Google) Analytics in their apps for app analytics. There's no way to disable those requests, there is no mention in Apple's app guidelines and these requests infringe on user privacy.

2) Apps that set their own (generated) ID or cookie. Take for example the Youtube app. You have to remove the app and reinstall it if you want to get rid of the 'recommended' video's it serves. Resetting LAT has no effect so it has to use a different beacon.

3) Since iOS 8 the Wifi and BT MAC addresses are randomized when an in store beacon tries to track a user. Sadly, the entropy of these generated addresses is pretty low, so tracking is now only hampered instead of fully ommitted.

I hope these items will get 'fixed' soon!

 

[Jimmy James]

Retargeted ads? I thought it said retarded ads. Seems more appropriate.

 

[AllergyDoc]

Off for me. And I use Crystal and whatever else I can to reduce the amount of advertisements I'm exposed to. I mute the TV and change the radio station during commercial breaks. There's only 3 decent radio stations where I live. If they're all on a commercial break I turn the radio off.

 

[Saipher]

I've had this feature and "Do Not Track" turned on for years. Whenever I help a family member or a friend set up their iOS device for the first time, I make them aware of such options. Most of them, actually all of them so far, ask me to turn on these features.

 

[Afee]

Retargeted ads? I thought it said retarded ads. Seems more appropriate.

The main issue with retargeted ads is that they have no clue when you've actually bought an item, or a way to tell this in ad. I've had tv ads for months while my new tv was already present in my home.
The same with Youtube: it keeps presenting you videos that you've already watched... So annoying!

 

[neuropsychguy]

This is an area I have mixed feelings about. Targeted ads are a great idea in principle. I recently went through and purged my Facebook profile to reduce the amount of information available to advertisers. That is coupled with fairly strong desktop (AdBlock Ultimate) and mobile ad blocking (I used to use Crystal but the develop started allowing some ads through so I switched to the much better and more comprehensive 1Blocker). While I now have less data available for advertisers to use to target ads to me, now when I see ads, they are mostly random and not applicable to me. This isn't a big enough issue for me to turn on settings to allow targeted ads but I'd rather see targeted ads than random ads.

 

[RedWing512]

1) Loads of iOS and macOS apps use (Google) Analytics in their apps for app analytics. There's no way to disable those requests, there is no mention in Apple's app guidelines and these requests infringe on user privacy.

Facepalm.

As a web designer/developer, Google Analytics is one of those things that is super, super handy for me, as it allows me to see how my sites are performing across different demographics. If there's a certain area where my website is not performing as well, that data makes it possible for me to find ways to make the user experience better.

Now, I've never developed apps before, but I can imagine that app developers can use that same Google Analytics data in much the same way. Disabling it on your end because of some paranoid "privacy" concern only hurts developers who simply want to see how their creations are performing, and have intentions of making them better.

 

[Evan Davis]

Perhaps the reason for stagnant growth outside the US is that it wouldn't make any difference in a lot of countries.

In Spain, when I select the option "Ad Information" just below the "Limit Ad Tracking" option, I get a page with the following message:

"Advertising information isn't available because Apple apps do not support advertising in your country"

 

[Afee]

Disabling it on your end because of some paranoid "privacy" concern only hurts developers who simply want to see how their creations are performing, and have intentions of making them better.

That's up to me to decide, thank you very much.
It's just something I noticed, that's why I mention it. I actually block all those requests, on macOS with LittleSnitch and on iOS with Weblock. Works perfectly (for me).

 

[Zadigre]

Personally, I like it turned off. If I'm seeing ads, I'd rather ads that I care about than ads that I could care less about.

this is exactly my taught also... I prefer to see ads that a relevant to me...

as an example this morning... I saw an ad for a store I physically and virtually visited... I was happy to know that there's a promotion on what I was looking for...

 

[69Mustang]

With the growth of public knowledge surrounding such ad-blocking features...

The answer to the low adoption rate is right here. It's not an ad blocking feature. We still see ads. Less relevant ads, but ads nonetheless. Also, afaik it only applies to Apple. App developers have other ways to track customers usage.

If LAT actually blocked ads, the adoption rate would probably be much higher. As it operates now, the only benefit seems to be psychological for those who think of privacy as a blanket principle. Even there I don't see the benefit since so much other information is data mined anyway.

 

[Corrode]

Those that turn off tracking should never complain or moan that the ads served to them have no relevance.

I'm in favor of (some) ad profiling if it means I'm served an ad for OWC rather than an ad to lose weight or secrets to beating cancer.

 

[now i see it]

98% of all paid apps are free of advertising anyway.

 

[bennyf]

Now, I've never developed apps before, but I can imagine that app developers can use that same Google Analytics data in much the same way. Disabling it on your end because of some paranoid "privacy" concern only hurts developers who simply want to see how their creations are performing, and have intentions of making them better.

You're right Google provides these tools to devs out of the kindness of its heart. NO WAY google is monetizing the data for itself or its ad network. How very paranoid of me to think otherwise.

Edited for decorum:

Please understand that your statement can make you appear to be someone who treats customers' valid privacy concerns as paranoid rantings. I would suggest that understanding their concerns would benefit both you and your success as a dev. Seeing customers as the enemy, or at the very least publicly declaring such, is probably counterproductive.

 

[KALLT]

Disabling it on your end because of some paranoid "privacy" concern only hurts developers who simply want to see how their creations are performing, and have intentions of making them better.

There are ample alternatives available that do not compromise privacy as much. I know (web) developers who do not even consider or are oblivious to other options. Google Analytics is effective, cheap and easy.

 

[bennyf]

I've had the experience in several freemium games that Limit Ad Tracking being on removes the ability to get free 'gems' or the daily 'doubler' or whatever. I really don't mind most ads, what I do mind is building of behavior profiles without informed consent and without transparency. The tracking switch here reveals that the money in mobile advertising is not in showing potential customers the ads it's in profiling and pimping one's users ("I've got a middle class, ____ religion female just the right age for you. I know the kind of people you like me to bring you.", says the ad network to the 'advertiser').

So I take that to mean that it is effectively doing what it purports to do. Prior to iOS 10, I'm not sure the switch did much of anything. Some aspect of the switch (or the apple developer agreement) is more effective now it seems.

 

[Born Again]

remember those apple fans that loved ads? iAds? where are those guys now lol

 

[RedWing512]

You're right Google provides these tools to devs out of the kindness of its heart. NO WAY google is monetizing the data for itself or its ad network. How very paranoid of me to think otherwise.

Edited for decorum:

Please understand that your statement can make you appear to be someone who treats customers' valid privacy concerns as paranoid rantings. I would suggest that understanding their concerns would benefit both you and your success as a dev. Seeing customers as the enemy, or at the very least publicly declaring such, is probably counterproductive.

IMO, they are paranoid rantings. I can understand valuing privacy, but there's a reason why things like Google Analytics exist--to provide devs with the metrics they need to develop effective apps & websites. There's absolutely nothing about the data collected by GA that couldn't be gleaned by other methods, nor is it anything that would totally expose who you are or what you do. If you're going to the extreme to block things like that, then you probably shouldn't even be online in the first place.

I recently just launched a new website containing Google Analytics code, and it's been useful for me to see how and what kind of traffic the site has been getting. Imagine, now, if a majority of my visitors had that turned off because of "privacy." I'd have no clue how the site is actually performing. So while you may think it's fine blocking that kind of stuff, it only hurts us devs in the long run.

(On a side note, I can understand keeping things like chats or phone calls private...those things can contain far more revealing things about you).

And I should also mention that while Google may use some of that data for their advertising purposes as well, they're very good about keeping that info secure...but that's a totally different discussion.

 

[truthertech]

Personally, I like it turned off. If I'm seeing ads, I'd rather ads that I care about than ads that I could care less about.

Your comment is music to Google's ears. When you allow them to track you, you are also making a decision to give all the companies to install tracked, of which Google is the largest, but there are an many more, your information that helps them build a dossier that is sold to the marketers, and of course is available to hackers, governments, etc. And that personal information, like everything else Google collects, becomes their property and is retained forever in the profile they have about you. The reason the ad is "relevant" to you is that Google also knows where you live, drive, your searches, the content of your emails sent and received, every picture you've taken and where, who your friends are, the items you order, the music you listen to, etc. As an intelligence official once said, "If Google didn't exist, we'd have to invent it."

PS. Once you install a tracker blocker, like Ghostery, and see how many trackers are being installed on each site you visit, you'll be amazed and never look at the issue the same. MacRumors site, for example, is currently unsuccessfully trying to install about 17 trackers on my computer.

 

[canadianreader]

I have that option turned on for some time now and it is better and I don't care about relevant ads if I need a product or service I will look for it on Google, Amazon or eBay.

 

[Afee]

IMO, they are paranoid rantings. I can understand valuing privacy, but there's a reason why things like Google Analytics exist--to provide devs with the metrics they need to develop effective apps & websites. There's absolutely nothing about the data collected by GA that couldn't be gleaned by other methods, nor is it anything that would totally expose who you are or what you do. If you're going to the extreme to block things like that, then you probably shouldn't even be online in the first place.

I recently just launched a new website containing Google Analytics code, and it's been useful for me to see how and what kind of traffic the site has been getting. Imagine, now, if a majority of my visitors had that turned off because of "privacy." I'd have no clue how the site is actually performing. So while you may think it's fine blocking that kind of stuff, it only hurts us devs in the long run.

(On a side note, I can understand keeping things like chats or phone calls private...those things can contain far more revealing things about you).

And I should also mention that while Google may use some of that data for their advertising purposes as well, they're very good about keeping that info secure...but that's a totally different discussion.

First of all, stop thinking for other people, we can do so fine ourselves.
Secondly, do you work for Google? It's either that or you are dangerously naive to the business model Google has been using for years (they're an ad company you know).
And lastly, why don't you give your users a choice in what they want to share? You're not seeing data of people like me anyway, so why not approach this issue from the positive side? Add a setting to disable trackers so your users can control their privacy. Because even if you don't care, it's MY data that is at stake.