![]() ![]() If the opt-out rate is as high as we’ve seen so far, then it’s bad news for the data-tracking racket, which the Financial Times estimates to be a $350bn industry, and good news for humanity. 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%. 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%. It takes time for most iPhone users to install operating system updates and so these are still relatively early days. ![]() It will be a while until we know for sure whether the apocalyptic fears of the data-trackers were accurate. 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. Some of the defensive PR mounted on their behalf, for example Facebook’s weeping about the impact on small, defenceless businesses, defied parody. ![]() Which explains why those who profit from the data-tracking racket had for months been going apeshit about Apple’s perfidy. 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.įrom 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. 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. At the heart of the switch is a code known as “the identifier for advertisers” or IDFA. 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. A few weeks ago, Apple dropped its long-promised bombshell on the data-tracking industry. ![]()
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