Apple's App Tracking Transparency

Identifier For Advertisers (IDFA)

Every Apple device contains a unique identifier called an Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) that collects information from its given user without disclosing personal identification information about the user themself. (Adjust) By tracking information about the actions of the user across the device rather than the personal information provided by the user, Apple is able to keep some anonymity about the true identity of the user on each device.

Even with the identity of the user anonymized, advertisers are still able to gain mass amounts of information through the IDFA to produce customized advertising to the user. The information stored within the IDFA is vast and varying and can be used to group individuals into certain marketing categories, allowing advertisers to be able to achieve such directed marketing.

When the IDFA was originally created, Apple automatically opted users into sharing their collected app data with the IDFA. Users could choose to opt out of sharing their information by going into settings and turning off this sharing option. With the new iOS 14 update, App Tracking Transparency automatically opts users out of sharing this information rather than automatically opting them into the IDFA. Although this feature was always technically optional, the new release makes users choose to share, rather than making users choose not to share.

References

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