Apple have confirmed the release of a new privacy feature, marking a significant change for iPhone users.
Apple previously announced a new privacy feature, App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which was expected to launch September last year. The feature means that app makers must request user authorisation to access app-related data, if the app collects data about end users and shares it with other companies for tracking purposes. This will essentially flag to all iPhone users when an app wants to access your data, and if you choose to deny this then it will limit or even completely prevent tracking by the app.
The announcement was met with pushback from some big providers who rely on deep user tracking to make their services viable, such as Facebook, and because of this release was delayed. Google has also fought against the new feature, and they are now looking into workarounds to collect user data. It has now been stated that ATT will be coming in an iOS 14 update, by spring 2021.
The recent Apple iOS 14.4 update was due to include the beta version of ATT, however instead it has been refocused to fix three vulnerabilities, which had already been exploited on iPhones.
Currently, when you use apps on your phone, user data can be tracked across other apps and websites in order to target users with advertising. The new privacy feature adds transparency to this and gives the user the option to choose if apps track them or not. Users will now receive a pop-up notification on apps to grant or deny permission for tracking, giving the opt in option to sharing information. In iPhone Settings, users can also see a consolidated list of the apps which have permission to track, and users can make changes to these.