Apple’s latest OS update, iOS 14.5, has privacy features that may make users feel happier but companies like Facebook are crying foul.
Apple has started rolling out its new OS update, iOS 14.5 (and iPad OS 14.5) that provides a few vital upgrades and handy features — including one that Facebook is stridently against. The update has a new privacy feature, named “App Tracking Transparency,“ that requires permission for tracking. Basically, even existing apps already on the device will be required to ask and receive consent to track online activities. Facebook’s contention is that this will hurt ad revenues. Apple had openly declared that it will clamp down on snoopy apps that stealthily shadow people on their iPhones to help sell more advertising. The new update has an anti-tracking that should have come earlier. But the Apple-Facebook squabble kind of delayed it. „App Tracking Transparency requires apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or sharing their data with data brokers,“ Apple said in its rollout announcement. Apps can prompt users for permission, and in Settings, users will be able to see which apps have requested permission to track so they can make changes to their choice at any time, it added.
