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iOS 14.5 will be released next week with a variety of new features and changes. A particularly important innovation is the new App Tracking Transparency. Apple has now sent a reminder to developers to meet the ATT requirements for apps by April 26th.
Apple has not officially announced when the ATT feature will be available to users, other than “in the spring.” However, it is expected to be enabled with iOS 14.5. Now Apple has Memory distributed to developers to ensure their apps are ready by April 26:
iOS 14.5: Apple warns about fingerprinting and co.
With the upcoming release of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, all apps must use the AppTrackingTransparency framework to request user permission to track or access their device's advertising identifier. If you don't obtain the user's permission to enable tracking, the value of the device's advertising identifier will be set to zero, and you won't be allowed to track them. When submitting your app for review, any other form of tracking—for example, by name or email address—must be declared in the "App Store Privacy Information" section of the product page and may only be performed if permission has been granted through AppTrackingTransparency. You must also include a purpose string in the system query to explain why you want to track the user, per App Store Review Guideline 5.1.2(i). These requirements apply to all apps starting April 26, 2021. As a reminder, collecting device and usage data with the intent to derive a unique representation of a user, or fingerprinting, continues to violate the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.
Apple also reminded that all iPhone and iPad apps submitted for review in the App Store must be built with Xcode 12 + the iOS 14 SDK or later. (Photo by Unsplash / Daniel Romero)
