Facebook, Instagram Encourage Users to Allow Their Apps to Track Them on iOS

Apr. 25, 2021

After launchinga bunch of new hardwareat its Spring Loaded event recently, Apple is now preparing to roll out its latest iOS 14.5 update to the public next week. With this, Apple is bringing a nifty privacy-focused feature called App Tracking Transparency toprevent apps from tracking usersacross third-party apps. As a result, Facebook is nowencouraging users to opt-out of the privacy featurefor its social apps.

For the uninitiated, with therelease of iOS 14, Apple introduced a new privacy framework dubbed AppTrackingTransparency. This will essentially prevent app developers to access a user’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), which allows apps to track users across third-party apps to deliver personalized ads, without one’s permission.

Following its release, there has been a lot of controversies surrounding the feature. This is primarily because Apple decided to make theApp Tracking Transparency feature compulsoryfor every app on its platform following the release of iOS 14.5. As a result, companies like Facebook started complaining that the said feature will impact small businesses on its social platforms as revenue from ads is expected to dip for many advertisers.

Well now, ahead of the iOS 14.5 official update release next week, Facebook is straight-up telling users not to opt-in for App Tracking Transparency on iOS and iPadOS devices.

You can check out the screenshots of thenew splash screens in the Facebook and Instagram appson iOS. Both convey the same message, i.e., how the“upcoming iOS changes”could negatively affect small businesses on the platform.

Now, following the iOS 14.5 update, every app including Facebook, Instagram that wants to access users’ IDFA or, in other words, track users across third-party platforms, needs to ask for permission from the users. So, it is all up to the user whether they want an app to track them or not.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that not allowing apps to track you across other platforms will not affect your app experience in any way. The apps will continue to function properly. However, the only difference will be you won’t be getting any targeted ads and advertisers will not be able to track your digital activities on other apps.

So, not allowing apps to track seems like the safer option, especially if you’re super conscious about your privacy. Moreover, Facebooksuffered one of the biggest data leaksin history recently, leaking personal data of over 500 million of its users. Nonetheless, it is completely up to you whether you want the company to track you or not.

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