A new report indicates a shift in the advertisement policy by Apple aiming at strengthening the user privacy of its third-party apps. This will prevent the advertiser’s to access the data about the apps installed on your iPhone or iPad.
The provision to collect data of the apps by Facebook and Twitter installed on your devices for targeting ads is being limited, according to Amir Efrati of The Information. He also gave an example of a user who has installed games, even the paid ones – where advertisers can show ads on games that are not already installed on the device.
However with the upcoming iOS 9 update this fall, the industry giants are more focussed about protecting user privacy. They are ensuring protection of data from other installed apps for ad targeting by preventing its access by other app developers.
Efrati explains, “As part of its recent privacy push, Apple earlier this month said it would shut down an increasingly popular practice by companies like Twitter to scan people’s iPhones and iPads to see which apps are installed. They used such data, which is akin to Web-browsing history, to target in-app advertisements to individuals.”
Inaddition to this iOS 9 update will also put a stop to the exploitation of an API in iOS called “canopenURL”advertisers which enables access of app download data. The latest update also boasts of a new feature that may allow users to temporarily delete apps to make more space for the new software update installation. Apple had earlier mentioned this feature at the WWDC when it said it had developed a method where iOS updates would require less free storage.
The intelligent deletion of apps in the latest update together warns used ‘insufficient space for download’ and then gives provision to temporarily delete apps. Reinstallation of the apps is done automatically once the software update installation is completed, that too with no loss of user data. Even though this feature is available with the beta version, there’s no confirmation as of yet of its inclusion in the final build that will be available to users this fall.
