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Apple is planning a major new privacy feature for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, and it will require companies to seek permission before tracking users to other apps and websites. While Apple hasn’t provided details on when this feature will debut, it looks like the first groundwork is starting to roll out.
The privacy function in question is twofold. First, users will be able to access the privacy controls in the Settings app under the “Privacy” menu. Here, users will be able to see which apps need the permission to track them and revoke or grant permission if needed.
Users will also see a pop-up message when they open an app for the first time after deploying this feature. Users will see the notification for new apps as well as those they already have on their devices. This pop-up is where businesses like Facebook can explain to users why they should enable tracking.
Facebook strongly criticized the new feature, saying it would affect small businesses and hurt their ability to reach new customers. Apple dismissed the criticism, saying the feature won’t force Facebook to change its approach to tracking users, only asking for permission.
As first reported by MacRumors, some users now see the follow-up prompt on their iPhone, but only for certain apps. For example, a user received a pop-up when opening the NBA app, indicating that the app was requesting permission to “track your activity on other companies’ apps and websites.”
Apple had initially hoped to launch this new privacy feature as part of iOS 14 in September, but that ended up delaying the rollout to give developers more time to prepare. The company has, however, repeatedly doubled the functionality and has promised to launch it in early 2021.
Apple released the first developer and public beta of iOS 14.4 last week after the stable release of iOS 14.3 to all. Based on the precedents, we would expect iOS 14.4 to be available to everyone no earlier than January.
However, some iOS users report that they have seen this window on iOS 14.3 and iOS 14.2. This could mean that this is a server side change that Apple is implementing or that some developers started implementing the feature before an official “release”.
Have you seen this privacy tracking prompt on iOS 14 in apps? Let us know in the comments!
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