If your iPhone has the latest iOS 14.5 update, chances are you've seen a mysterious pop-up window when opening certain apps.
It reads “Allow [app name] to track your activity in apps and on other companies' websites?” Followed by two responses: “Ask app not to track my activities ”or“ Authorize ”.
You do not understand the intent of this message and its consequences?
Le Figaro explains everything to you.
Read also: Targeted advertising: Apple launches transparency in application tracking
A targeted anti-advertising feature
This pop-up is part of a new iPhone feature called App Tracking Transparency.
Thanks to the ATT, the owner of an iPhone can decide, application by application, whether or not they want them to exploit the digital traces that they leave behind when browsing the Internet in order to display advertisements. targeted according to their tastes and marketing profile.
Read also: Targeted advertising: Facebook goes to war against Apple
Wait, digital traces? Targeted advertising? Marketing profile? But what are you talking about?
Ask a loved one to connect to an application from their smartphone and do the same.
Chances are, while you check out the same app, you will see very different advertisements in it.
This is called targeted advertising.
To widen the line, a young mother will see childcare products, while a globetrotter will see promotions from airlines.
To guess who you are and what you like, applications and websites sell and exchange information collected about an Internet user through cookies: his email address, date of birth, geolocation and the places where he is. visits most often, the products he looks at on e-commerce sites, the searches he does on a search engine ...
These data are aggregated to draw a completely anonymized marketing profile.
Digital advertising companies ignore your real identity, but know that profile 2971264 lives in Croix Rousse in Lyon, is between 40 and 50 years old, owns an iPhone, travels often in the Alps, does yoga and is hesitant to buy an espresso machine.
To read also: Shoshana Zuboff: "There is in the shadows a huge extraction of our personal data of which we have no idea"
So with ATT, I will no longer have targeted advertising?
If you don't allow an app to track you, you prevent it from communicating with third-party companies that hold data about you.
But Apple in no way prevents apps like Instagram, TikTok or Twitter from using the data they collect themselves - what is known as “first party” data - to display targeted advertising.
Social networks keep your date of birth, information requested at registration, and know your areas of interest based on your subscriptions.
Conversely, a mobile game will have a hard time guessing what you like if it can no longer communicate with third-party applications.
In short, targeted advertising will always be displayed.
But the result may be less relevant than before if the app doesn't know much about you.
Should we say no to everything?
The choice is yours!
Keep in mind that while advertising can be annoying, it is advertising that makes so many apps available for free.
However, the less targeted an advertisement, the less remunerative it is for the application.
App Tracking Transparency allows you to make your choice, application by application.
For example, you can say “yes” to application vendors you want to support, and “no” to others.
Read also: The French players in digital advertising stand up to Apple
Should I repeat my choice several times?
No, the pop-up only appears once per app.
To change your mind, you have to go to the iPhone settings.
Follow the path Settings> Privacy> Tracking.
I have iOS 14.5 but I haven't seen the pop-up yet, is this normal?
Yes, because the applications need to be updated to meet the new standards of iOS 14.5.
It should take a few weeks.
Apple will reject updates that attempt to bypass App Tracking Transparency.