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Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

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341–350 of 371 posts

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's really a shame. It has the power to make an even larger dent in the epidemic. This is the cult of ignorance at play, where mistrust of all institutions (heavily fueled by need to get clicks to serve ads) means we can't have nice things.

There's some truth in what you're saying, but mistrust of institutions is completely rational in light of history. Empirically, ignorance in this context would be unskeptically trusting institutions. That it strays into the irrational at times is as human as the inevitable corruption that fuels the mistrust. For someone without full knowledge of the technology to assume (in this case wrongly) there's a privacy issue…

I really like what you touched on in this.

People are responding to fear of past president. One could argue that it is highly unlikely that it will happen again. One could even PROVE that it is NOT happening again NOW - but you are still dealing with someone responding out of fear.

I feel like we are seeing the exact same phenomenon with (SOME) people who respond out of fear of catching the virus.

I would be really interested to learn more about why some people 1) are fearful of government tracking 2) are fearful of the virus 3) aren't fearful of either.

Personally I've watched my self move between all 3 over the past year - it has been a WILD ride

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#342
post #331
post #277

Why would you enable it? What possible benefit is there in doing so? The ads won't get better regardless of the data they have on you. They aren't exactly using ML or AI to help you get better ads. Its really just boring data queries in SQL or some graph language. That's the sum total of most advertising intelligence. Its not 21st century high tech. Its mostly relational databases with some NoSQL to make that table l…

I opted in, because if I'm going to see ads, I would prefer they be somewhat relevant to me. And I want to support the sites/apps I use for free.

That's great for the 4% who want this. However, it might be a bit more user friendly to default to the no tracking option (due to the overwhelming support for that option,) and allow users who want tracking turned on to manually enable it in the settings.

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#344
post #33

Another thing to keep in mind is how often these will be seen. Right now ~10K apps ask (or, try to ask). So the odds of seeing the prompt in the wild aren’t too high unless you’re a Facebook user. But as more apps show the prompt and it’ll become very common all you need is to agree once and you’ll then be more likely to opt in more than opt out, in my opinion. I expect that 10k to 10x before the end of the year. Eve…

10k out of 2M isn't a good metric, because there will be a long tail of niche, unpopular clone (AKA a student's first to do list app), shovelware or spyware apps that most people will never encounter. If the list of apps is sorted by users, I'm sure the top 50 will have a massive reach. ESPN, Hulu and Cruncyroll issue thepop up. Consider the reach of those 3 apps alone compared to the bottom 500k.

Yes and no.

Yes, 10K isn’t a lot, and the big apps are included in the 10K.

But… companies like Google Need as many apps as possible to funnel data to them so they can profile _everyone_, and they do that with their “free” services like Firebase (aka Google Analytics), in addition to ads.

To Firebase it’s all about scale (aka visibility) and not specific groups.

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#345
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe so, which is why that % is very small. I’ve seen quite a few reports from different providers in the last couple of weeks and suspect the _real_ average of opt-ins is considerably higher. I’m hoping to see some numbers from Apple at WWDC, which I expect would be in the 30-50% opt-in. Why? Because some apps (like Facebook) make it seem like it’s mandatory to opt-in. And I believe that if you opt-in for Faceb…

Apple has guidelines on the screens displayed before the opt-in. I've seen apps fail audit because of the pre-text.

Yes, but a quick look at attprompts.com will show you most apps that use pre-prompts do at least one thing that’s not allowed by the rules.

I Worte about a few, including McDonald’s which uses misleading language and a popular game that shows a fake prompt altogether.

https://appfigures.com/resources/this-week-in-apps/20210430#...

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#346
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user most definitively has to know these things. Your argument is a race to the bottom I think. We will end up with devices where the user has to know nothing, cannot do anything and is lazy and easily led. Just as moving yourself around on a bike is healthier than planting your ass in your car, so is thinking for yourself and _once_ in your life taking the time to figure out what that whole location sharing thin…

> We will end up with devices where the user has to know nothing, cannot do anything and is lazy and easily led. Sounds like a good summary for iPhone.

I do quite a lot with my iPhone. So do others I know. One of the most important things I do is Facetime with grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#347

I think this speaks to the power of defaults. 96% of users have not turned this on because they didn't even know that its disabled, and when an app asks you if they can track you, the response is going to be a strong no. The reality is that FB's entire business model has been predicated on the default being that tracking is allowed. If this holds, this will be cataclysmic for FB. You can't have a huge portion of your…

I'll give my perspective which I think is very different than the rest of the HN crowd here in the comments. I think this mainly stems from the fact that I'm probably much younger than a lot of the folks here. I do a lot of random shopping online... I opted into the FB tracking when I got the popup yesterday because I do FB/IG a lot and I click on interesting ads. Honestly, I tend to buy quite a bit from the ads that…

Which is great Now you have the choice to choose whether you want generic ads or personalised

That’s what people wanted for so long The choice to choose , nothing more nothing less.

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

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post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You clearly don't understand how the system works, there is no data related to location involved.

You clearly don’t understand my point. It becomes location data as soon as it’s triggered.

It doesn’t. I don’t know what to tell you. You should go back and re-read how it works.

Re: Analytics suggest 96% of users leave app tracking disabled in iOS 14.5

#350
post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, maybe all these “lazy normies” are just busy with things like friends, family, work and their community...so they don’t really care if X company is able to do better ad targeting. But sure, you guys have fun living under your rock and being super educated on the nuances of mobile ad targeting technology. The rest of us idiots will waste our time doing intellectually lazy things like spending time with our kids an…

Not to be too offensive, but it _is_ lazy no? This stuff is important! I feel like it's (and has been for a while) going wrong. I know user education it mostly a pipe dream. But it's all I can think of. The iPhone is probably relatively free compared to the streamlined hassle-free applications and devices of the future. And all the while polarization in all our societies grows, until my government too has no option b…

You've picked the wrong site/time to invoke civic ideals wrt (digital) technology; that was a thing of the 90s.

Too many conflicting interests have built up..

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