It’s been almost a year since Apple introduced iOS 14.5 with App Tracking Transparency, a feature that lets users choose whether they want third-party apps to track them. While the number of users choosing to allow the app to track them was low at first, a new study from Adjust shows that users are slowly changing their mind.
According to Adjust, the mobile industry is concerned that App Tracking Transparency in iOS will hurt the app market that is heavily dependent on advertising. In May 2021, the opt-in rate for tracking apps was around 16%. A year later, that number had increased to 25%.
In particular, the number of users who allow tracking for the game is even higher, up to 30%. Even in some cases with a few popular games, the opt-in rate is up to 75%.
These numbers are based on global research from 2,000 apps in Adjust’s database. The company also notes that adoption rates vary from app to app, but Adjust believes many users are seeing the “value” of receiving personalized ads, rather than disallowing tracking in order to receive them. Ads I don’t care about.
Ever since App Tracking Transparency was introduced, it has led to many controversies between app developers and Apple, especially Facebook, to this day, this social networking app still resists changes to Apple’s privacy policy. This feature is predicted to cost Facebook $13 billion in revenue by 2022.
Reference: 9to5mac