App Tracking Transparency
When you’re using apps on your iPhone, you may start to see this. It’s the new App Tracking Transparency prompt. It’s a feature that gives you a choice – a choice on how apps use and share your data – data like your age, location, health information, spending habits, and your browsing history, to name a few. This data can help to map your runs, tag your photos, or track your location, so a nearby store can offer discounts.
But some apps have trackers embedded in them that are taking more data than they need, sharing it with third parties, like advertisers and data brokers. They collect thousands of pieces of information about you, to create a digital profile that they sell to others. These third parties use your profile to target you with ads, and they can also use it to predict and influence your behaviors and decisions.
This has been happening without your knowledge or permission. Your information is for sale. You have become the product.
That’s why iPhone users will now be asked a single, simple question: Allow apps to track you or not? Maybe you’re okay giving an app your email or location, so they can share your data with others to personalize ads or build a profile about you. And if you’re not? Well, that’s what the prompt is for. Whatever you choose is up to you. But at Apple, we believe that you should have a choice.
App Tracking Transparency: a simple new feature that puts your data back in your control.
