The day has come. Apple’s new app data tracking prompts are now being rolled out to all iOS devices in the iOS 14.5 update. As we mentioned in a post a few months ago, the update has been causing quite a stir even before its launch.
As Apple describes this feature of the update:
“App Tracking Transparency requires 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. Apps can prompt users for permission, and in Settings, users will be able to see which apps have requested permission to track so they can make changes to their choice at any time.”
As we talked about in our other post, this change is expected to have significant impacts for marketers. The data tracking that allows for effective ad targeting and retargeting for online ads is no longer a given, at least not on Apple devices. Most major social media platforms have announced changes they’re making to anticipate the update and have launched hubs within their sites to give advice on how advertisers can best use the platform once the update is live. However, as noted in a post on Social Media Today, no one knows exactly what the impacts will be. The true impact depends on how many users choose to opt out of data tracking when they get the new prompts. The more users who opt to stop apps from tracking their activity, the less data will be available. Industry guesstimates lead us to believe that a large majority of users would opt out. But research thus far has indicated that the opt-out rate may not be as high as anticipated, with roughly have of users opting to allow tracking to continue.
And in Apple’s defense, their stance is that this change puts more control into the hands of individuals, as it should be in my humble opinion.
Only time will tell how deep and wide advertising efforts will be impacted by the iOS 14.5 update. In the meantime, if you’re looking for help with your organic social media marketing, give us a shout and let’s see if we’re a good fit for your needs!
Image by Benjamin Nelan from Pixabay