iOS 14 Requires Apps to Ask Permission to Use IDFA to Track Users ⇥ adage.com

George P. Slefo, Ad Adge:

[The Identifier for Advertisers] is shared with app makers and advertisers by default, but that will change once iOS 14 rolls out this fall. Then, users must give explicit permission through a popup for app publishers to track them across different apps and websites, or to share that information with third parties.

“This is a tectonic shift in the industry,” says Gadi Eliashiv, CEO at Singular, a mobile marketing intelligence company. “Some business models will be completely disrupted, while others will have to be completely reinvented.”

Apple didn’t kill its Indentifier for Advertisers, but rendered it useless, Eliashiv says. “It’s unlikely many consumers will say ‘yes’ to tracking when asked and, even if they do, saying ‘yes’ on one app is not enough. You also need to say ‘yes’ on all the other apps you’re seeing ads on for IDFA to be useful for attribution, retargeting, look-alike audiences and many other mobile measurement requirements,” he says.

If users are unlikely to opt into being tracked across multiple apps and websites with frighteningly granular detail, perhaps it is an indication that such privacy-hostile practices are unethical and the industry’s attempts at self-regulation are bunk.