Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

appleinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 461 posts

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#441

Post by tomlockwood »

ec109685 wrote: post #419
tomlockwood wrote: post #59

> A drop in advertiser spending is likely to occur from small or medium-sized advertisers, Kasamias believes, as they are clients "where cost efficiency is paramount and there is a physical footprint, as targeting the right user at the right time will become more difficult." Frankly, what a load of horse shit. The reason for the drop in spend isn't the lack of targeting potential. Ad companies talk about this, becaus…

How do they not have incentive? If ad tech company X is more effective than Y at generating sales, eventually the money will shift away from Y.

Ad Tech company X needs to only appear more effective than Y. Location data enables increased attribution, making X appear more effective. X may or may not have done anything that had a greater impact on the targets.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#442

Post by tomlockwood »

Gatsky wrote: post #425
tomlockwood wrote: post #59

> A drop in advertiser spending is likely to occur from small or medium-sized advertisers, Kasamias believes, as they are clients "where cost efficiency is paramount and there is a physical footprint, as targeting the right user at the right time will become more difficult." Frankly, what a load of horse shit. The reason for the drop in spend isn't the lack of targeting potential. Ad companies talk about this, becaus…

Interesting idea. I have noticed that after I buy something I start seeing ads for the exact item, which I have never seen before. These aren’t things you buy more than once. I always thought it was pretty dumb if you are serving ads for something someone just bought... but maybe they do it because some small % of people will click on it and they can claim the ad was associated with the sale in some hand-wavy way. Or…

I think you're right.

This is a function of Marketing departments wanting to create large audiences. Large audiences mean more chance to attribute a sale, and also more impressive sounding campaigns.

The technical and time cost of implementing something that removes people who have made purchases from the audience (probably 0.001% of an audience) is much higher than simply adding someone who visited your website (lets say 5% of the audience) to the audience. If your product is reasonably ok, your largest group of customers is often your previous customers, so attributing the ads those previous customers see to their next purchase is logical for marketers.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#443

Post by tomlockwood »

rpastuszak wrote: post #364
aaronharnly wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the blog post, for the thoughts yes, but also for teaching me the word “spruik”! PS I hope you’ve found or are finding a new and rewarding area to work in.

Same here. I'm in a similar situation to yours when you published that post. Curious to see what did you do next.

Thanks for your kind words :)

I shifted my career into web dev, and got a bit more picky with the companies I applied to work for. I feel much better about my work now. You'll find something!!!

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#444

Post by emptybits »

DagAgren wrote: post #359
emptybits wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. But FWIW, a user can reset their "Advertising Identifier" anytime they want: Settings -> Privacy -> Advertising -> Reset Advertising Identifier... Now if iOS was more hacker friendly, I'd write an app to automate that action and have it run regularly or on a random schedule or something.

Why not just turn off the tracking identifier?

I suppose part of me hopes that spotty or misleading data disrupts advertising models more than an absence of data. I may be wrong.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#445

Post by the_gipsy »

saagarjha wrote: post #369
the_gipsy wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't get unremovable malaware installed on an iphone you buy from apple. This is simply not true. iOS also allows "supervisor" apps (see MDM) that are extremely difficult to remove later, perhaps even more difficult than android. I know because I used to work at company that did a kids protection app.

Apple cracked down on those recently, and has added support for MDM with a lighter touch in recent versions of iOS.

Marketing spin, these apps are still in the appstore right now.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#446

Post by akudha »

prox wrote: post #329
akudha wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. I don't like both companies and wish there were other options in the mobile space. But Apple definitely seems like a less shitty choice of the two

There are other options. My next phone will either be a Librem 5 or a zerophone.

Librem 5 isn't ready for public use, is it not? checking out zerophone, haven't heard of it, thank you

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#447

Post by lowdose »

BigJ1211 wrote: post #414
kuschku wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lightning cables are more popular than USB-C cables at this point. If I'm at a party or something usually someone has an iPhone cable, USB-C, not so much. Of all the people in the local LGBT center, zero had a lightning cable available, one had a microUSB cable (with USB-C adapter), and everyone else (> 2 dozen) only had USB-C cables, when a person with iPhone asked if anyone had a charging cable. So maybe in the U…

I'm Dutch, I definitely see more iPhones in business settings. But generally it's a healthy mix of Android and iPhones when I'm at a party or somesuch.

Owning an iPhone is almost an universal value signal.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#448

Post by ficklepickle »

ZeWaren wrote: post #362
kmnns wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Lineage OS + microg with no Google apps on a compatible phone and I experience zero Google. Else, I seem to be able to enjoy Android to its fullest, using the Aurora app store. Lineage OS might be a viable alternative for people who prefer Android but disdain Google.

I'm doing something similar on my Pixel 2. In the end I have very few apps that send personal data to ad companies (I've blocked as many ad and tracker networks as I could), and I've prevented most apps from showing me notifications unless I really want them. You'd be surprised how much battery you save with all those things disabled.

Battery was my biggest surprise. WiFi is off when screen is off and I get two days out of a charge on an old S7.

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#449

Post by tekknik »

deergomoo wrote: post #303
jeffparsons wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I still strongly prefer the look and feel of Android over iOS, but at this point my next phone will be an iPhone. Why? Because Google recently stepped up its notification spam in their official apps. They're using a mechanism that's supposed to exist to notify me of things _I_ want/need to know about urgently instead to advertise products and services to me that I have no interest in. It's tedious to…

> I paid a premium for a high-end flagship Google phone Unfortunately it seems paying a premium isn't enough to get any respect from manufacturers these days. Just look at Samsung and LG TVs, you can pay thousands for a high-end model and still have to set up PiHole to avoid being shown ads in the menus.

I ended up disconnecting my samsung tvs from the network for this issue. funny enough i just recently noticed one of my higher end samsungs has started broadcasting a bluetooth connection. i’m sure this wasn’t there before i disconnected it

Re: iOS 13 app tracking alert has dramatically cut location data flow to ad industry

#450

Post by _jal »

1propionyl wrote: post #293
_jal wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Google originally planned it this way, but their release strategy gives them an interesting gradient of users that I think benefits them. (This is entirely off the cuff, I may be sticking my foot in my mouth.) Early adapters, who are more likely to engage with the bigger questions raised by tech, are likely to use new devices with the latest revision of what Google thinks you should share with the adver…

Yes, you're right. The inference you haven't made yet is what the proportions of the users in the "early adopter" and "general user" categories are in countries that are NOT the United States or Europe. Hint: most of Google's Android users aren't in the US or Europe at all. Instead they're in countries where there are much more pressing social, political, or economic issues for governments to address that easily side…

Yep. I'm sorry to say a lot of people here have a fundamentally imperialist stance towards the rest of the world. It comes out in all sorts of ways. Of course, we're not the only country with that outlook, just (currently) the dominant one.
Post reply on HN