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LinkedIn Won't Use IDFA After Apple's App Tracking Transparency Changes

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Apple plans to begin enforcing its App Tracking Transparency changes following the release of iOS 14.5, and all apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA will need to ask a user's permission before tracking is allowed.

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LinkedIn today said that with Apple's proposed changes, it will no longer be accessing the IDFA so LinkedIn users will not be presented with an ad tracking popup.

On its Marketing Solutions blog, LinkedIn says that it won't use the IDFA "for now," a change that will result in "limited impact" to campaign performance for advertisers.
We've always kept ourselves to a higher standard by putting our members first. And we work hard daily to provide reliable and resilient solutions for our customers that evolve with the industry's requirements, while providing a trusted, quality experience for our members. One of the bigger industry shifts is Apple's upcoming changes to Identifier for Advertising (IDFA), which companies use for tracking and ad targeting.

We want to share an update on our plans and guidance to help you prepare for these changes. We have decided to stop our iOS apps' collection of IDFA data for now. Although this change affects the LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN), Conversion Tracking and Matched Audiences, we expect limited impact to your campaign performance, and don't foresee major changes required for your campaign set-up.
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LinkedIn plans to "regularly reevaluate" the usage of the advertising identifier, but the company says it is committed to "privacy-by-design principles" that "provide a trusted experience" for LinkedIn users. Rather than using the IDFA, LinkedIn says that it will leverage its first-party data to help marketers reach buyer groups.

LinkedIn's message that abandoning the IDFA will have a limited impact to campaign performance for LinkedIn advertisers is a different message than other major social networking sites like Facebook have been sharing. Facebook has claimed that Apple's App Tracking Transparency changes will have a major impact on the small businesses that use Facebook advertising tools.

Twitter this week also said that it is not concerned about Apple's ad tracking changes because Twitter does not heavily rely on the IDFA. Twitter CFO Ned Segal said that Apple's IDFA restrictions will actually "level the playing field" by giving all advertisers new challenges to face. Twitter has, however, said that App Tracking Transparency will have a "modest" impact on revenue.

Facebook and other advertisers that have spoken out against App Tracking Transparency are concerned about Apple's changes because many do not believe that users will consent to being tracked across apps for ad personalization purposes.

All of the App Tracking Transparency code is in iOS 14 at the current time, but starting with the release of iOS 14.5, all apps that access the IDFA will need to implement the ad tracking popup that allows users to give or deny permission to use the IDFA.

Article Link: LinkedIn Won't Use IDFA After Apple's App Tracking Transparency Changes
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/04/linkedin-app-tracking-transparency-no-idfa/
Thank you Apple! This is why, when it comes down to it, I always try and choose Apple products. It is my duty as a consumer to show companies that I do care about my privacy, it is a real factor in my purchasing decision and if a company like Apple is willing to value privacy more than other companies, I'm going to buy their product instead.
 
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My take ... because of the potential for Backlash, both Linkedin & Twitter have recently decided to sit on the sideline for now, & watch what happens with Facebook's efforts.

A side-lesson from Twitter's comments yesterday was that New Players / Entrants into their markets are now in a much more level playing field than before !

In other words, new Players / Entrants will very likely emerge !

That could be the BIGGEST UN-intended consequence of it ALL !

NO way did Apple's Mgmt plan it that way.
 
rictus007 said:
Ohhh this sounds like Apple’s Monopoly is working ….. another antitrust case in 3..2..
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How is Apple giving their users a more visible choice on disabling a feature used by others to track them across not only iOS apps but across the larger world (points at what Facebook does with it) some type of monopolistic issue? ...or asking 3rd parties to outline to the end user what and why they use this feature (among others) for?

They apply this to themselves in a equivalent manor already.

For more details on the changes -> https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/
 
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DonutHands said:
If Apple really cared about privacy and tracking, where is the switch to disable it all globally? Turn off all IDFA, SDKs, APIs. But naw, Apple still wants all this info about you.
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You can turn off IDFA globally already. Apple can't inspect all SDKs on what they are doing is resulting in tracking or not, so they are asking developers under their contract to publish in the App Store to state what their app is doing so end users can understand that and make an informed decision and then expecting the developer to honor that request (with some of it being enforced like the IDFA). If the developer is found to violate what they stated Apple and end users now have more power to hold them to account and Apple can take action more quickly.

For more details on the changes -> https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/

Apple itself already has not done a lot of this themselves and provides way to opt-out even more from the little they do do.
 
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Historically, LinkedIn has been one of the more egregious offenders with regards to misusing their access to your information and your devices. It's good that these changes Apple is making are helping to clamp down on companies' bad behavior; but I dumped the LinkedIn app long ago.
 
So will LinkedIn do a press release and PR tour if they turn usage of the identifier back on?

This is the problem with the Opt-Out model. You never know what’s changed, what options are available to you to protect your privacy, etc. Facebook thrives on this as it allows them to say “you’re in control” knowing full well nobody can keep up with the changes. (In addition to all the other scum moves Zuck, Sheryl, and the employees of Facebook pull.)
 
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jz0309 said:
that is entire BS ... educate yourself what Google is planning for 2022 ...
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I was trying to be ironic…. But feel free to educate us…. what about all google is planning for 2022 regarding privacy you want me to know?
 
I am in favour of being asked if I want to accept tracking ads. However if this means more apps will have to charge a subscription fee to maintain their revenues Apple will get the blame.
 
Theyayarealivin said:
Can't wait for iOS 14.5 to be RELEASED. Apple is not playing games when it comes to enforcing about privacy.
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You mean apart from accepting $12bn a year from Google to make Google the default search engine despite the fact that Google is the world’s biggest invader of privacy.
 
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