Apple takes on data brokers and auctions with new ‘Privacy on iPhone’ ad campaign

Apple is launching a new worldwide ad campaign today that yet again emphasizes the company’s focus on privacy. This time, Apple is taking on the topic of data brokers wugs a new ad called “Privacy on iPhone.” In addition to a 90-second ad that will run on social and YouTube, Apple is also running billboards and other forms of advertising prompting “Privacy on iPhone.”

Apple’s latest privacy ad push

The new ad campaign from Apple focuses on data auctions and data brokers. The emphasis is on how companies collect user data then sell it third-parties for advertising. Apple, of course, emphasizes how features built-in to iOS such as App Tracking Transparency, App Privacy Report, and Mail Privacy Protection help users combat these data brokers.

The ad takes a real-world approach to how these data auctions and data brokers operate. It shows the process of companies and advertising bidding for user data and what that data is eventually used for.

“iPhone has privacy features like App Tracking Transparency and Mail Privacy Protection that help you control who sees your data and who doesn’t,” Apple explains.

The details on the App Privacy Report feature:

With iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2, you can turn on App Privacy Report to see details about how often apps access your data—like your location, camera, microphone, and more. You can also see information about each app’s network activity and website network activity, as well as the web domains that all apps contact most frequently. Together with Privacy Nutrition Labels, App Privacy Report helps give you a more complete picture of how the apps you use treat your data.

And on App Tracking Transparency:

With iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, apps must ask for permission before tracking your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. Tracking occurs when information that identifies you or your device collected from an app is linked with information that identifies you or your device collected on apps, websites and other locations owned by third parties for the purposes of targeted advertising or advertising measurement, or when the information collected is shared with data brokers.

Mail Privacy Report is a feature that prevents email senders from tracking information such as when and how many times you view an email, irfan forward it, your IP address, and other data

You can see the full “Privacy on iPhone | Data Auction” video below. In addition to the video itself that is running on Youtube, TV, and other channels, Apple is also rolling out a campaign that will place billboards in major cities emphasizing that “Privacy. That’s iPhone.”