Two-Thirds of iPhone Users Expected to Block Ad Tracking

[Morgenland]

I would even lock up my parents if they tried to sell me any nonsense without being asked.

The advertising industry still lives by the old dogma: The customer is stupid, so you have to beat him over the head with the product world, and he is most awake when he feels disturbed (for example, by the commercial breaks on YouTube). In the meantime, however, there is the Internet: Everyone can find out about products and new products for themselves, and therefore the money would be better invested in the development of better products than in propaganda to seduce people into thinking bad goods are great.

Thank you, Apple!

Of course, I'm worried about how the advertising industry will now start the war:
Probably many sites won't even be able to open if one blocks ads. This is already partly the case today.

'68%' are a pleasingly clear opposition to this idea.

The advertising industry is like too much bureaucracy: you can't get rid of it, even if it doesn't bring any benefits.

 

[tsd]

I’m a digital marketing manager and have been making a living in online advertising for 15 years now. I always block tracking and ads on my own devices and I eagerly and happily anticipate the day when all tracking is disabled. Marketers have for too long relied on tracking, retargeting, algorithm manipulation, and big data. This is a good day for advertising and my industry will be served and improved when ad targeting, FB pixels, and hyper-individualized analytics are gone.

 

[ungoogled]

I'm all for this, but I'm concerned that it will make the worst offenders (Google, Facebook) even more powerful.

 

[bluecoast]

Facebook and Google's marketing campaigns to their users about why they shouldn't block ad-tracking on their apps are going to be hilarious.

 

[Blowback]

"Approximately 58 percent of advertisers are reportedly planning to move their businesses out of Apple's ecosystem and invest in other areas like Android devices or connected TV as a result of the change." - I have a 65" LG smart TV that I only use as a monitor for my Apple TV 4K. After installing the TV I connected it to my home Wi-Fi to download updates, then I blocked the TV on my Wi-Fi router so it cannot "phone home" with any usage data. One more barrier between me and the advertisers trying to target me.

Just interested in all you did...I just said ‘no’ to the wi-if connection in my Samsung set-up/ adjustment panels to disconnect the tv from my home wi-if. Can you be more specific on the process you initiated? Thanks.....

 

[Blowback]

With the US's current rabid, woke society, I opt out of anything I can. Shut down every social media account and certainly won't be allowing any company, corporation, app, or anything else track me for anything. Hell, I've gotten in the habit lately of turning off location services and putting my iPhone in airplane mode anytime I leave my house.

What specific foil products do you suggest?

 

[Blowback]

Why is it:
Ask App not to Track
Allow

Shouldn't it be:
Deny
Allow

Totally agree but will hazard a guess: Our lawyer deprecated society?

 

[Blowback]

It seems a good move for Apple, no question about that. More app revenue, and it's great marketing fodder for selling iPhones. The majority has voted and they care about privacy.

Given a choice...yes a choice!...for my monies going to ad parasites or software developers.....as easy a decision as checking ‘no’ (but meaning HELL NO!) to donating a single $ to either political party on my tax returns.

 

[Blowback]

Have said it before, will say it again, 100% FREE Ad-based apps will soon go the way of the DoDo bird !

I predict the number of apps in the iOS App Store will be 1/3 of what it is today, in just 1-2 years.

And, that this "may" come back to bite Apple's iPhone Unit Sales, as some % of End Users rely-upon such apps, yet will probably Opt-Out anyway (NOT thinking about the long-term consequences).

Some BIG companies are already moving their Ad dollars away from mobile.

The trend will continue.

It will have a drastic affect.

How things play out is really anybody's guess.

I’ll bet that 1/3 of the apps on the store are useless.....and that 1/3 are designed as ad buckets! In the long run this may increase the QUALITY of the apps on the store.

 

[Blowback]

If IDFA is dead, a new way to track users will start to rise. This is what I believe.
Also, people are having so much faith in apple not tracking their own customers and not selling data? No audit from third party means everything has to Be taken with a grain of salt in my book.
Ad company apparently still could not figure out an alternative method to maintain user tracking even after the grace period. Interesting.
Do keep in mind though, ad supports “free of charge” contents. I certainly don’t want to browse the internet where only google, government website, Wikipedia and a handful of niche sites are “free of charge” to access. Putting everything behind a paywall is just as terrible as browsing a news site with some ads, if not worse.

A lot of truth to what you say ...BUT: the problem is not ‘an add’ or ‘some ads’...the problem is my inviting you into my home to discuss the product you’re offering to sell and you thinking you have the right to enter all of the rooms of my home, place cameras and listening devices, inspect my and my families dressers, bathrooms, diaries...........

 

[Abazigal]

Have said it before, will say it again, 100% FREE Ad-based apps will soon go the way of the DoDo bird !

I predict the number of apps in the iOS App Store will be 1/3 of what it is today, in just 1-2 years.

And, that this "may" come back to bite Apple's iPhone Unit Sales, as some % of End Users rely-upon such apps, yet will probably Opt-Out anyway (NOT thinking about the long-term consequences).

Some BIG companies are already moving their Ad dollars away from mobile.

The trend will continue.

It will have a drastic affect.

How things play out is really anybody's guess.

I am actually of the opinion that there are too many apps in the App Store, and the majority of them are not worth anyone's time, much less the server space it takes to host them.

It's probably not Apple's place to do so, but I think that at some point, it's not about the number of apps, but their quality. I think what Apple has done with Apple Arcade is a step in the right direction - offer a curated selection of apps that do not contain ads or IAPs that stand out amongst a seas of such apps. While allowing developers a way for paid apps to compete alongside free ones.

As it stands, we could probably obliterate ½ the apps in the App Store, and nothing of value would be lost.

 

[Dr_Dre]

You know an Apple user is opting out when they use a Memoji as there profile picture

 

[planteater]

You're going to have ads, regardless, with many apps.
Do you want to see ads that apply to you or things you have no interest in?

There's no right or wrong answer: It's your choice.

No. It's our human right not to be tracked, our information agregated and sold to anyone that wants to purchase it. You obviously have no clue to the value of your own information, how it can help or harm you.

 

[Googlyhead]

Somewhat ironically; I couldn’t load the forum thread for this article without (temporarily) turning off AdGuard’s general blockers.
My only reasons for using content blockers are to fix annoyances like cookie notices and invasive stuff such as FB and yes; targeted ads.
I don’t (or; didn’t) actually mind ads much; but probably now have a complete distrust of the entire system due to so many bad actors.

I’m at the point where I never under any circumstances click on an ad. Although I rarely see them with the blocking I run, plus never running apps with them, rather I pay for the ones I want.

I don’t think I’ve ever clicked an ad; whether to buy or to find out about something.
It‘s mostly simple distrust (I’d give preference to a source or product option that I don’t associate with an ad).

 

[Dark_Omen]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Services like Facebook need to offer a paid tier where your privacy isn't what's being sold, their service is. Until they start doing this they will see revenue decline If people were aware these services aren't free and their private data is the what is being sold most people won't go along with it. Some will, of course, but most will not. They better fix their business model.

The content on Facebook isn't worth paying for. I'm not going to pay so I can see grandma post pictures of her vacation in Maui last week, or her dinner at the Olive Garden last night, or some moron posting an off-base comment on something they know nothing about on The NY Times page.

In fact, there isn't a single Internet forum worth paying for (I consider FB an internet forum). There's so much stupidity from the general public and so much drama it's like paying to be back in high school again. People block their own family members because they post something they don't like... It's not worth paying for.

Zuckerberg better start paying people to use his platform instead.

 

[Googlyhead]

Zuckerberg better start paying people to use his platform instead.

Still not gonna do that.

 

[DummyFool]

That’s great.

That's not great because advertising gives us a lot of free content and a lot of content that would not exist otherwise but that's progress which not always brings us only good things.

 

[planteater]

Somewhat ironically; I couldn’t load the forum thread for this article without (temporarily) turning off AdGuard’s general blockers.
My only reasons for using content blockers are to fix annoyances like cookie notices and invasive stuff such as FB and yes; targeted ads.
I don’t (or; didn’t) actually mind ads much; but probably now have a complete distrust of the entire system due to so many bad actors.


I don’t think I’ve ever clicked an ad; whether to buy or to find out about something.
It‘s mostly simple distrust (I’d give preference to a source or product option that I don’t associate with an ad).

The only ad system I trust is those displayed at DuckDuckGo. They are related only to the topic of the search, and clicking on them does not track or profile you. I do that only to support DDG.

 

[Justinb51]

So... there will be more (and worse) advertising in general because consumers disabling tracking makes the ads less effective.

All adds are ineffective for me, I’m one of those people that absolutely hate all adds. I will even go so far as avoid a company if they have too many adds.

 

[Shirasaki]

A lot of truth to what you say ...BUT: the problem is not ‘an add’ or ‘some ads’...the problem is my inviting you into my home to discuss the product you’re offering to sell and you thinking you have the right to enter all of the rooms of my home, place cameras and listening devices, inspect my and my families dressers, bathrooms, diaries...........

Well, the ad companies mindset is: we will eventually find a way to get into your home to spy on everything without your consent.

 

[GuruZac]

Not my fault advertisers built their models around tracking users without the users consent.

 

[lederermc]

The IDFA is a nicety, not a necessity.

The reality is that people will ”request not to track”, feel super tech-savvy, and then promptly link their Facebook account or use Google sign-in.

Which is why one should never use FB or Google login.

 

[pdr733]

Obviously, I opted out of tracking already (on settings-privacy in 14.4.x) and will do again if prompted when 14.5 arrives.
Interestingly some ppl in this forum and reddit do believe that this will block ads or somehow every app will be ad free. Absolutely not, just makes tracking across apps much harder, which is a good thing of course. But there will be ads, dont know why anyone believes otherwise.
The other day I looked up the apps I use on iphone and ipad, and turned out there is only two I use which are "proper" third party apps, i.e. made by an app dev company (presumably) living from releasing apps: a reddit client and a calculator for ipad. All the others are apps for non online services I already use (banks, public transport companies, government services, etc.) or just a "gateway" for online services, such as different messengers, Gmail, Onedrive, Google Photos and so on. These two categories of apps will exist in any case (where applicable, they will show you ads anyway, IDFA or no IDFA), and, sincerely, I could not care the slightest if absent IDFA-tracking there will be less ad ridden gacha games or 76453 similar ad-supported metronome apps.
(I am not entirely convinced BTW that the demise of IDFA-tracking will actually lead to mass extinction of these apps)

 

[jazz1]

Why does MacRumors give a warning not to turn off JavaScript in order to get the full experience of the website? Is this have something to do with ads/tracking?