A   few weeks ago, Apple dropped its long-promised bombshell on the data-tracking industry. The latest version (14.5) of iOS – the operating system

If Apple is the only organisation capable of defending our privacy, it really is time to worry

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2021-05-24 03:30:06

A few weeks ago, Apple dropped its long-promised bombshell on the data-tracking industry. The latest version (14.5) of iOS – the operating system of the iPhone – included a provision that required app users explicitly to confirm that they wished to be tracked across the internet in their online activities. At the heart of the switch is a code known as “the identifier for advertisers” or IDFA. It turns out that every iPhone comes with one of these identifiers, the object of which is to provide hucksters with aggregate data about the user’s interests. For years, iPhone users had had the option to switch it off by digging into the privacy settings of their devices, but, because they’re human, very few had bothered to do that.

From 14.5 onwards, however, they couldn’t avoid making a decision and you didn’t have to be a Nobel laureate to guess that most iPhone users would opt out. Which explains why those who profit from the data-tracking racket had for months been going apeshit about Apple’s perfidy. Some of the defensive PR mounted on their behalf, for example Facebook’s weeping about the impact on small, defenceless businesses, defied parody. Other counteroffensives included attacks on Apple’s monopolistic control over its App store and charges of rank hypocrisy – that changes in version 14.5 were not motivated by Apple’s concerns for users’ privacy but by its own plans to enter the advertising business. And so on.

It will be a while until we know for sure whether the apocalyptic fears of the data-trackers were accurate. It takes time for most iPhone users to install operating system updates and so these are still relatively early days. But the first figures are promising. One data analytics company, for example, has found that in the early weeks the daily opt-out rate for American users has been about 94%. This is much higher than surveys conducted in the run-up to the change had suggested – one had estimated an opt-out rate closer to 60%.

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