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User Tracking Back On iOS 6

Posted by timothy on from the stephen-king-needs-to-get-on-this dept.

First time accepted submitter connor4312 writes "Apple got caught with its hand in the cookie jar when privacy experts protested the use of a universal device identifier, or UDID, to track the online preferences of iPhone and iPad users. Enough is enough, right? Well, maybe not. It looks like device tracking is back with iOS 6, courtesy of a new tracking technology: IDFA, or identifier for advertisers."

4 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Unlike before, now you can turn it off by Sez+Zero · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you want to turn off device tracking using the IDFA on your iOS6 device, do the following:

    1) Click on Settings.
    2) Click on General to access the General Settings.
    3) Click About
    4) Scroll down and click on Advertising.
    5) Set Limit Ad Tracking to "ON".

    Default On. This seems like the mobile version of Do Not Track, and we all know how that is turning out.

    1. Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Informative

      Mine was off as well, and I don't think I've ever seen that setting before. I got the "default on" from TFA, so maybe that isn't correct?

      The TFA says "default off" -- that's kind of what the article was all about, other than discussing the fact that Apple is fostering confusion by making you "enable" the feature to disable a feature.

    2. Re:Unlike before, now you can turn it off by manaway · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes it's a good option to have, but parsing it is difficult. If I don't want ad tracking, I must turn it off, but "on" turns ad tracking off, right? How confusing! While programmers are used to thinking in negatives, mixed with yes/no and true/false, that is not the norm. Compare:

      [yes] [no] Allow ad tracking
      [off] [on] Limit ad tracking

      Both are logical and equivalent, but the first is far easier to comprehend and mark according to your preference. Apple, and other corporate software, likely does this intentionally. Of the small percentage of people who will find this setting, even fewer will mark it correctly. Result? Far more monitoring while getting kudos for providing the option. And that is how marketing experts earn their money.

  2. Re:Oh no! by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Before anyone dismisses that as just a joke, it's literally true in iOS 6 if you use the new "Passbook" feature. Every time you pull up the lock screen with Passbook enabled, Passbook does a GPS fix and checks in with Apple to find out if it should display one of the little Passbook cards.

    So, yeah. Apple really does know every time you're at Starbucks - if you use the Starbucks app and iOS 6's Passbook.

    Oh, and note I said "lock screen," not "unlock the phone." Just pressing the "hold" button to display the lock screen checks in with Apple.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.