Apple’s move to allow users to opt out of being tracked by advertisers and others across apps and websites. Apple’s privacy policy aims to make users of Apple devices more secure and puts users in control of their personal data. This is, naturally, having a significant effect on the digital advertising market.
[In] 1995, with the introduction of the world wide web and search engines, targeted ads became a reality.
They first came in what was called banner ads and were relatively un-targeted. But Google turned the digital ad market upside down with new algorithms that looked for personal data about a person’s interests, and the digital ad market took off.
Twenty-five years later, the world wide web has grown exponentially with billions of users accessing digital information on multiple devices, and conceptually every one of them is a target for ads.
Until Apple made this move to give users more direct control of a person’s data, one had to work hard to opt-out of sharing their information to most sites. Now Apple forces the “do not track” me option up front, which makes it easier to keep people’s information from being used to track them.
Although this is painful for advertisers, it is a welcomed advance for consumers who want more security and privacy in their digital lives.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s certainly a welcome tool for users, but, some users choose “Do Not Track” for everything which can render their digital devices less useful to them. For example, users might want their favorite news sites to be able to know about their interests, so that they can surface stories of interest to them. For most apps and sites, we choose not to be tracked, but we don’t do it as a blanket policy, we do allow certain trusted sites to track us in order to increase usability.
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MacDailyNews Take: It’s certainly a welcome tool for users, but, some users choose “Do Not Track” for everything which can render their digital devices less useful to them. For example, users might want their favorite news sites to be able to know about their interests, so that they can surface stories of interest to them. For most apps and sites, we choose not to be tracked, but we don’t do it as a blanket policy, we do allow certain trusted sites to track us in order to increase usability.
Addendum:
For example, we allow the MDN app to track us, so we can earn enough advertising revenue to pay for MDN’s upkeep. It is a considerable expense, but Apple give us no handouts, so we are forced to find alternate methods.
They suck, but also, they work. So we do them. It is the lesser of two evils, like using a Nokia candy-bar phone in preference to Android, or tolerating some of the more colorful commentators due to a deep and abiding respect for free speech and the first amendment.