Apple has officially released iOS 14.5 and its associated App Tracking Transparency to the public. In conjunction with this release, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi sat down with Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal to talk about App Tracking Transparency and the impact on users and advertisers.
Federighi emphasized in the interview that the goal of app tracking transparency is simply to give users a choice about sharing their user data. The misuse of personal data, explained Federighi, can range from “scary to dangerous.”
We really just want to give users a choice. These devices are such an intimate part of our lives and contain so much of what we think and where we have been and who we have been with that users deserve and need control over that information. The abuses can range from the creepy to the dangerous.
iOS 14.5: Apple always confident
App Tracking Transparency was originally supposed to be released as part of iOS 14 last fall, but Apple delayed the rollout to give developers more time to prepare. Despite the delay, Federighi told the WSJ that Apple was always confident that App Tracking Transparency was the right thing to launch.
We weren't surprised to hear that some people would object to this, but at the same time we were completely confident that it was the right thing to do. People have their own ideas about privacy and how important it is to them, so we're all going to make our own personal decisions from now on.
You can find out how you can control app tracking in our tip below. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
