After the launch of iOS 14.5, applications must obtain permission to access the advertising identifier or IDFA of the user’s iPhone in order to track users in different applications to achieve the purpose of advertising positioning. The rule also prevents applications from using other workarounds to track users, which has caused some problems for some developers.
According to the latest report from Forbes, Apple has begun to reject app updates that do not comply with the application tracking transparency rules, which have been implemented since iOS 14.5.
Several apps have been rejected. Forbes lists Heetch, Radish Fiction, InnoGames, etc. After the developer sees that the app is rejected, they will receive the following message: “Your app uses algorithm-converted device and usage data to create a unique identifier to track users.” The information also lists the collected data.
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Eric Seufert, a mobile marketing analyst, said that an SDK of the mobile measurement company Adjust had problems because of collecting device fingerprint data. Adjust is installed in more than 50,000 applications and claims to “maximize the impact of mobile marketing.”
Apple is banning applications that use fingerprint technology to collect data. The purpose of the latter is to build user profiles so that users can be tracked even without advertising identifiers.
Data collection uses indicators such as the software version, the time since the last update, the time since the last restart, the amount of charge, and the battery status to identify individual users.
Apple’s position is that if a user refuses to use IDFA for ad tracking, then the user also refuses other tracking methods. Apple’s App Store rules stipulate that application developers cannot collect data from devices for the purpose of identifying devices. Developers are responsible for all tracking codes in their applications, including any third-party SDKs they use.
Adjust has updated the SDK and deleted the code that accesses data such as CPU type, phone memory, charging status, and battery level. Therefore, applications that are rejected for using Adjust may be allowed to update after installing the new Adjust SDK.
Apple plans to release the official version of iOS 14.5 is still unknown, and there are currently six Beta versions.
