The importance of apps in our daily lives cannot be neglected for sure! From ordering our favorite food online to making grocery lists to booking a cab ride, we rely on apps for achieving our day-to-day tasks with ease. Our smartphones are flooded with different applications, there’s an app for everything. Apps are our constant partner for entertainment, information, productivity, or be it anything.
Image source: Business Insider
But are your mobile apps tracking you? Yes, most of the apps track your online behavior, activities, location, interests, and so on to deliver you a more personalized experience based on your user profile. Well, thanks to iOS 14.5 for rolling out app tracking transparency that allows you to control how apps track and collect your data.
In this post, we will be learning all about what is app tracking transparency and how can you block an app from tracking your activities on iPhone and iPad.
Also read: Apple Releases Ads to Promote App Tracking Transparency Feature on iOS 14.5
What is App Tracking Transparency
App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is a new iOS feature that offers you more control of how apps track your data and online behavior. This privacy feature is available for iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. Each Apple device has a unique “Advertising identifier” that is used by companies and marketers for targeted advertising. So, if you choose to not share this information with app developers, you can limit the tracking of how your data is shared across apps.
Also read: Facebook’s New Popup Message Is the Answer to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Update
How to Enable the App Tracking Transparency?
Well, the app tracking transparency framework constantly works in the background, and hence there’s no way by which you can explicitly use this feature or enable it on iPhone or iPad. So, you don’t have to do anything. This is how it works.
Whenever you open an app and if you see the “Allow <appname> to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites?” pop-up notification. This is how Apple offers you control to choose whether you want apps to track your activity or not. You can either hit the “Ask apps not to track” or “Allow” button based on your choice.
How to Manage App Tracking Setting on iOS?
Granted the app tracking permission to a certain app and now changed your mind? Well, you can easily tweak this setting. If you, later on, decide on changing the app tracking transparency for any app, you can dig into settings. Here’s what you need to do.
Open the Settings app, tap on Privacy> Tracking. Now, toggle off/on the “Allow apps to request to track” option to manage privacy settings for individual apps to enable or disable the tracking.
Also read: Popular iPhone Apps Secretly Tracking User’s Activity
Unable to Access the ATT Setting?
Is the App Tracking Transparency feature greyed out in Settings? Unable to access it on your iPhone or iPad. It can probably be due to the following reasons:
●Apple ID was created in the last 3 days.
●Your Apple ID is managed by an educational institution or workplace that is limiting the tracking.
●Apple ID registered with a child account, aged less than 18 years.
So, if your Apple ID meets any of the above-listed criteria, you may not be able to access the ATT switch in the Settings.
Frequently Asked Questions-
Q.1. What Is An App Tracking Transparency iOS?
App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is a privacy-driven feature rolled out by Apple that allows users to gain control of how apps collect their data and review their online activities. This feature was rolled out along with iOS 14.5 and is available on iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS.
Q.2. How do I turn off app tracking?
To disable app tracking on iOS or iPadOS, navigate to Settings> Privacy> Tracking. Pick the app whose privacy setting you need to modify and then disable the “Allow apps to request to track” option.
Q.3. How do I block app tracking on iPhone?
To block app tracking on iPhone head on to Settings> Privacy> Tracking. Select the app whose tracking you need to disable. Now, toggle off the “Allows apps to request to track” slider. You can follow these steps to block app tracking for all of your currently installed and future apps.
Also read: Is There a Way to Stop Google and Apple From Tracking You?
Conclusion
So, folks, this was all about what is App Tracking Transparency and how you can benefit from this framework. And here’s something you should know. The ATT feature only restricts the app from sharing your data access to other apps. For example, Instagram will still be able to track your data on Instagram, Facebook can track your activity on Facebook, and so on. But if any app is trying to share your online activities or data across other apps, you will see a pop-up notification on the screen that you can manage.
What do you think about Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature? Do you think it is useful? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments box! Follow us on social media – Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.