Last year, Apple announced tightening the rules for developers whose apps track user activity to deliver relevant ads. To ensure the safety of its customers, the company decided to oblige developers to ask users for permission to track. Not everyone liked this, Facebook even began to harass Apple through the media, urging it to abandon the introduction of new rules, as they could harm small businesses. However, Cupertino did not heed the requirements of the management of the social network and still acted in their own way. As you can now see, it is not in vain.
IDFA (Advertising Identifier) is a unique number that is assigned to each Internet-enabled device. All information about the user’s actions on the Web is tied to it, as a result of which a virtual portrait is formed, which is then used to form a relevant advertisement that meets his personal preferences.
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How to follow through apps
Google, which has been slow to update its apps for almost a month, has finally announced that it will do so, but will no longer use IDFA. The company made the decision not to ask users for tracking permissions.
Google executives did not go into details, but it is already clear that the company does not want to put on itself the stigma of a spy and collector of confidential user data. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to give up advertising. You just need to make some adjustments to the order of interaction with applications.
Now, instead of IDFA, Google apps on iOS will use SKAdNetwork. It is a framework that ad networks use to log traffic, analyze downloads, activations, time spent in an application, etc. In general, it is analogous to IDFA but more secure as it collects much fewer data.
SKAdNetwork only allows you to measure the conversion (installs and engagement) of applications and advertising campaigns without collecting confidential data. That is, the SKAdNetwork advertising concept, in principle, does not provide for the use of virtual portraits and increasing the relevance of advertising at their expense. This allows users to remain anonymous, but at the same time gives advertisers an idea of how effective their advertising is.
How advertising on iOS will change
Apple has been using SKAdNetwork since 2018, but Google still doesn’t really like its effectiveness. Therefore, the search giant promises to work with Apple to improve the framework and make it more useful for advertisers and ad networks.
We are working with industry representatives to provide Apple with feedback on how SKAdNetwork can still be improved so advertisers can better measure the results of their iOS 14 campaigns. However, at Google, we always put our users’ privacy first. Transparency and freedom of choice are at the core of our commitment to users, and our advertising is no exception, Google said.
Overall, Apple’s user privacy initiative deserves respect, and the fact that Google has had to change its advertising model, albeit only on iOS, for now, is certainly a positive trend. Another thing is that soon we can expect a decrease in the relevance of advertising.
That is, the ads and banners themselves will appear in front of us, but they will no longer meet our needs and preferences as well as before. In my opinion, this is not very convenient, albeit more secure. After all, if I have to watch an advertisement, I want to look at what I need, and not at what I would never buy. Dilemma.
