Hey Friends,

A new feature for iPhone and iPads landed this week in iOS 14.5 which give users more control over their data and privacy. Users will now be able to say no to having their data collected by apps. Remember, the sharing of data is often used by third parties to target you with unwanted adverts.

Companies use a unique identifier called the IDFA (identifier for advertisers) found on every device which links to other services such as Facebook's tracking pixels or tracking cookies, to follow users around the web, and allow them to learn even more about users.

Why is this a welcome step?

According to Apple the average app includes six third-party trackers which collect and share your online data with third parties. In addition, some apps request more data than is required to provide their service. Take TikTok as a case in point, as they are currently being sued for collecting large amounts of children's data.

So is this the end to tracking and unwanted adverts?

Sadly No. While this new Transparency Feature is a welcome addition, the IDFA is not the only way of uniquely identifying devices and tracking user online activity and behaviours. Device fingerprinting is also commonly used which combines numerous device attributes to again give each device or user a unique identifier or fingerprint. Attributes such as the operating system, type and version of a web browser, including extensions, and a devices IP address all allow a device to be uniquely identified amongst billions of devices online.

Also, the recently announced FloC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) put forward by Google will still allow them to continually track people across the Internet (more to follow on FloC in a future post).

For now, my advice is still to limit your use of apps (where possible), switch to a privacy respecting browser and use browser isolation (see my Philosophy for strategies)

Have a great week.

Take care,

Chris

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Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Link: Google Argentina Domain bought for £2

\\ Two Link: Computer shortage to last six months

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