What is Apple App Tracking Transparency and How to use It

Privacy is a topic on everyone’s mind right now, but with the iOS 14.5 update or later versions, a much-discussed new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency comes. This feature was announced in the year 2020, but the company has delayed its launch to give developers more time to prepare. Since then, support for the feature has already kicked off in iOS and some apps have already adopted it, but Apple now says it will start enforcing the new rules. Therefore, in this guide, we will tell you everything about what is Apple App Tracking Transparency and how to use it.

What is Apple App Tracking Transparency

With the launch of iOS 14.5 and later versions, a new feature called App Tracking Transparency, aimed at restricting ad targeting, came into effect. Apple’s goal is to give users more privacy control. Basically, “App tracking transparency requires apps to obtain user permission before tracking their data on apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising or to share their data with data brokers.”

So, after installing the iOS update, you will see a new notification when you open your apps or download new ones. The notification will give you 2 choices:

• Allow the app to track your activities in other companies’ apps and websites.
• Ask the app not to track your activities.

If you give the app permission, it will be able to track or access your device’s advertising identifier, called IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), which means it can serve you personalized advertisements on other apps or websites. If you refuse, its advertising targeting will then be reduced.

How to enable and use Apple App Tracking Transparency

For starters, when you install a new app, you won’t have to do anything, since you will be automatically asked if you want the new app to follow you. If you want to see which apps have requested permission to track you, and possibly change their tracking settings, just head to the same tracking page. You can then give or revoke this authorization by following the steps below:

• Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
• Select Privacy > Tracking.
• Under “Allow app tracking requests”, you will be able to see a list of specific apps that have requested this permission. You can allow or revoke this permission for each specific application.
• Finally, note that you can always use the “Allow App Tracking Requests” option to disable permission for all your current (and future) apps.

That is everything you need to know about what is Apple App Tracking Transparency and how to use it. While you are here, you might be also interested to know similar types of guides here: How Far Can An Apple AirTag Track, and How To Know If Someone Is Tracking You Using AirTag.