Research shows how some apps keep tracking users despite new iOS privacy features

Since App Tracking Transparency was introduced last year with iOS 14. 5, every iPhone and iPad app now has to ask users whether they want to be tracked or not. However, some developers have figured out new ways to keep tracking iOS users even when they opt out of being tracked by third-party apps.

A new independent research (via Ars Technica) has revealed how these developers have been bypassing the new iOS privacy features to identify and track users even when they don’t want to. App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, is a good idea. However there are loopholes in it that allow apps to silently gather data about the device.

The researchers analyzed nine iOS apps that use server-side code to generate a user identifier even when App Tracking is disabled. This code appears to have been provided by Alibaba’s subsidiary, which can track it across all apps. Advertising companies can still target specific users with this code.

In total, the research compared 1,759 apps before and after ATT was released for iOS users. Although a quarter of these apps claim that they do not collect any user data, 80% of them still contain at least one tracking library.

Our findings show that even larger tracking companies have the ability to track their users in secret, particularly if they have access to large amounts of first-party data. They can do this through a range of methods, including using IP addresses to link installation-specific IDs across apps and through the sign-in functionality provided by individual apps (e.g. Google or Facebook sign-in, or email address).

9to5Mac’s Take

Despite all the evidence, App Tracking Transparency does not disappear. The changes in Apple’s privacy policies have in fact made it more difficult for developers to track users, and they can no longer get the same amount of data as they could before ATT even by using workarounds.

ATT remains one of the best features ever introduced to iOS, and Apple will surely make it even better every year.

Read also:

• Number of users opting in to App Tracking on iOS grows significantly since last year