Can iOS14.5 protect your privacy?

Introduction

Do you often feel that when you mention a product on Penguin Chat or search for a product on Baidu, you will see it on the recommended list of JD.com, Tmall, or Taobao? Or even see the product promotion advertisement on some news software? Now let's talk about some things about advertising...

Apple reminds developers that a new IDFA (advertising identifier) ​​policy will be implemented in iOS14.5, and apps must obtain user authorization before obtaining IDFA.

IDFA is an advertising tracking identifier of Apple. It has nothing to do with hardware, which allows businesses to monitor advertising effects without letting them know users' personal privacy. However, since iOS 14.5, the IDFA switch will be turned on only with user permission. This approach will certainly be welcomed by users, but it will also have an impact on Internet advertising.

This practice was naturally boycotted and criticized by advertisers. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, the largest social platform abroad, even spent a huge amount of money to place advertisements in major media in the United States, saying that Apple used monopoly means to harm the interests of others, just to boycott and criticize Apple's decision. After all, Facebook earned 455.2 billion yuan from advertising last year, accounting for 98.52% of Facebook's total annual revenue. If you touch other people's cake, justice or injustice is no longer important.

So can Apple's policy really protect our privacy or greatly improve it? Before answering this question, let's take a look at what methods are used to accurately deliver advertisements to us?

1 Advertising Identifier IDFA

If IDFA is not restored in the settings, it can be said that it will remain unchanged. IDFA is like a "temporary ID card" for a mobile phone. With this identifier, the user's actions can be bound to this identifier. For example, if you have a chat application like WeChat and a shopping application like GoGo on your phone, when you talk about razors in the WeChat chat application, GoGo will recommend razors to you.

Possible data exchange

2 Pasteboard

Remember when iOS 14 was first released, "xxx pasted from xxx" popped up on the apps like crazy? The pasteboard is a public place that everyone can use. After Apple gave a prompt to read the pasteboard content, there were basically no apps that read the pasteboard content.

Read the pasteboard contents

The above two methods both use system mechanisms to achieve information sharing. In China, there are many other possible ways to obtain information sharing.

3. Real-name authentication, authorized login, one-click login with local phone number

Who can escape from x信, x猫, x宝, and xx宝 in Chinese people's mobile phones? These either require real-name authentication with ID cards or mobile phone numbers. Who can escape the control of these big companies? The ID card does not change, and the mobile phone number will not change most of the time.

4 Telecom operators

Even if you have not authorized the health code, such as geographic location, telecom operators can still determine whether you are at risk based on where you have been.

5 China Advertising Association

The China Advertising Association has launched CAID to replace IDFA, although we don’t know the specific implementation method. Although it may not be 100% accurate, it is definitely fine in most cases, otherwise it would not have been launched. Apple also mentioned other derivative ways of collecting devices and using data in its latest policy, which still violates the Apple Developer Program license agreement and should be a denial of the CAID solution. However, we have reason to believe that the China Advertising Association will not "compromise easily", after all, all roads lead to Rome.

In summary, IDFA is a big blow to advertising alliances, but it is difficult to cut off this line, especially with the support of domestic big data functions. As a user, I want to say that "users should not only have the right to know, but also the right to decide."