On Data Privacy Day, Apple shared an article to raise awareness about protecting people’s personal information online. In his article, the company explained that the new App Tracking Transparency policy will rollout with the next beta update.
Users need control over data privacy
Apple commemorated Data Privacy Day with its “A Day in the Life of Your Data” report, which shows how companies track user data across websites and apps. In the report, also explaining how privacy features across Apple’s products give users more transparency and control, Apple announced that new privacy policies will roll out broadly in early spring to strengthen this situation.
Data tracking practices have increased nowadays. An average app includes six different trackers. The user data collected and monetized by these trackers fuels an industry worth $227 billion per year.
According to Apple, awareness of industry practices like data tracking is very important in order to provide better privacy experience. Users need to be able to decide who will use their data and how; and have control over when it’s necessary.
For this reason, the company will switch to new practices named App Tracking Transparency that better protect users. Applications will require apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data. Under Settings, users will be able to see which apps they allow and make changes if they want.
The changes were first announced last June at ‘Apple Worldwide Developer Conference’. Still, Apple, wanting to give developers enough time to make the necessary changes, stated that it will not be implemented for a while.
This requirement will roll out broadly in early spring with an upcoming release of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14.
