Apple executives had conflict over user tracking approach
Apple has had internal conflicts over the extent to which iOS users can disable tracking in favor of advertisers, The Information reports. The conflict resulted in a middle ground between ad revenue tracking and user privacy.
Some senior Apple employees, including head of user privacy Erik Neuenschwander and software engineering chief Craig Federighi, are said to have objected to the lack of privacy options for iOS users with regard to tracking data. Anonymous parties told The Information that it was feared that such options would be bad for the revenues of advertisers and Apple itself. How far Apple had to go in executing the user’s choice sparked internal discussions.
App Store CEO Phil Schiller and Services senior vice president Eddy Cue, among others, are said to have opposed a general ban on the use of an Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). When the use of such an identifier is disabled, applications can no longer “track” the specific user for advertisers. This could hinder ad revenue and prevent users from finding new apps.
Since 2016, iOS 10 has enabled users to disable tracking with an IDFA in favor of advertisers. The anti-tracking feature, on the other hand, would be hard to access, as it was barely found in the settings of a device running iOS. The Information also writes that an ecosystem was created around obtaining an IDFA.
Therefore, it was decided to develop the App Tracking Transparency privacy feature. One of the trade-offs between the Apple executives had to do with how users could or would not disable all tracking. The opt-in system, available since 2021, requires users to give permission for tracking per app; there was ultimately no option to prevent the overall tracking for advertising purposes.
Federighi and his team “maneuvered very carefully around any protests from regulators.” The word ‘tracking’ is said to have been heavily thought through. The privacy notice that users receive when opening an app for the first time is also said to have been designed with care.
Update, 21.05: A job description for Apple employee Erik Neuenschwander has been added to the article. The spelling of his name has also been improved.