iOS

All About App Tracking Transparency of New iOS 14.5

Aayush Yadav ,

New iOS update 14.5 has introduced the most awaited built-in privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency which lets users opt-out of being tracked by third-party apps.

Initially, this privacy feature was announced by Apple at WorldWide Developers Conference in June 2020. Since then, giants like Facebook and Google are unhappy because it will restrict them from interfering in the digital life of users and they will not be able to target ads based on the user’s activity.

Before this Apple was using the IDFA (Identifier of Advertising) which was the successor of (UDID) Unique Device Identifier which was used to limit the ad tracking.

Now with App Tracking Transparency iOS users will have control over the apps which take their digital data without their permission to target relevant ads based on their browsing.

In a press statement, Apple said “Its new privacy feature will require apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising or sharing their data with data brokers”

Apple CEO Tim Cook attacked Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year by criticizing Facebook’s business model, which is a threat to user’s privacy. After all, Apple is famous for its privacy measures and is not involved in the business of selling data to advertisers.

Process of stopping apps tracking in iOS 14.5: –

As the new iOS 14.5 is now available to download and install so the first step would be to download this update. To update, go to Settings> General> Software Update.

You will now see a update of 1.14 GB. You have to download and install it.

Once downloaded, the update will be verified and installed.

Once the installation process completes you can check that your device is running on the latest software 14.5 by going to Settings> General> About.

Once you have the latest software running on your device, then the App Tracking Transparency feature is enabled by default.  When “app tracking transparency” is enabled, it will require applications to ask for users’ consent before they are able to track their activity across other third-party apps and websites.

 What If The Feature Is Not Available Even After An Update?

By any chance if the feature is not enabled on the device, you can do it manually by going to Settings>Privacy>Tracking and turn on the feature.

Now enable it.

Even after following this process, you are unable to enable it because the feature is grayed out, then check for the Personalized Ads option.

The App Tracking Transparency feature was grayed out after the update because the “Personalized Ads” option was off.

As per “9to5Mac” sources- The tracking option should come grayed out by default for Apple IDs of which the owner is under the age of 18 or for devices with an MDM profile that restricts the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” settings.

It would be hard to say that It is an unexpected behavior or bug? We have to wait till Apple comes up with a solution for this.

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