Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Fails To Stop Third-Party Tracking

Luke Smith 11th January 202213th January 2022

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency that was rolled out with iOS 14.5 appears to have made limited difference in the total number of active third-party trackers. The additional also didn’t affect third-party tracking connection attempts either.

App Tracking Transparency was launched to give users a choice whether they wanted to allow third-party tracking in apps.

Research conducted by Lockdown Privacy was set out to test the effectiveness of the feature at stopping tracking, using ten top ranked apps including Yelp, Telegram, Grubhub, Run Rich 3D, Starbucks, Streamer Life!, Subway Surfers, Cash App, DoorDash and Peacock TV.

It found that there was no difference in third-party tracking when users chose “Ask App Not To Track” on their devices. The number of tracking attempts was slightly lower when users chose not to be tracked.