- Date
- April 26, 2021
- Kind
- Technology shift
- Significance
- Transformative
With the public release of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5 and tvOS 14.5, Apple’s developer notice says all apps had to use the AppTrackingTransparency framework from April 26, 2021: an app must ask for the user’s permission to track them or to access the device’s advertising identifier.
What the rule says
- Unless the user gives permission, the device’s advertising identifier is all zeros and the app may not track the user.
- Any other form of tracking must be declared on the app’s App Store product page and may happen only if permission is granted through the framework.
- The system prompt must include a purpose string explaining why the app wants to track.
- Press coverage described the prompt as asking whether an app may “track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites”.
Why advertisers noticed
Mobile advertising had relied on the advertising identifier to connect an ad to an install or a purchase. When many people decline, that link weakens, which is why measurement and attribution products changed afterwards.
Why it matters
It moved a major part of mobile advertising from tracking by default to tracking by permission, and pushed marketers toward aggregated measurement, first-party data and modelling. Our read is that it is the point where privacy changes began to shape martech product design directly.
What happened next
The framework remains part of Apple's platforms. Marketing measurement vendors have kept adding modelled and aggregated reporting in response.