It’s official: only 5% of US consumers want apps to track them across the internet for targeted advertising.
That means 95% of US consumers are saying ‘no way’ to cross-app tracking with Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.
Verizon Media’s Flurry Analytics is monitoring daily US and worldwide opt-in rates for cross-app tracking following the ATT release, and it’s abundantly clear most consumers like the control ATT gives them over their personal data.
The 5% stat we quote here was posted at 10 am Pacific Standard Time on May 8, 2021.
Flurry Analytics is monitoring answers to the privacy question, Do you want us to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites? which now appears when a user opens an app for the first time after the iOS 14.5 update.
Flurry Analytics says it has aggregated insights across 2 billion mobile phone devices per month. As well as the ATT opt-in rate in the US and worldwide, Flurry is also monitoring the share of users that apps cannot ask to track (‘restricted’ status) in both the US and worldwide.
It shows the worldwide opt-in rate is higher than the US rate, at 13% at 10 am Pacific Standard Time on May 8, 2021, but as they say over at Ars Technica, this global number is still below some ad companies’ opt-in estimates.
ATT will likely sucker punch ad tech
We agree with Flurry Analytics when it describes iOS 14.5 as “the most industry-impacting iOS release to date”.
The stats are rapidly confirming early fears from ad tech that ATT will be very bad for business — which is why Facebook has pushed back so hard against it for 12 months and with extra gusto recently.
The media is having a field day.
Mashable starts its article about the low US opt-in rate with “Sorry, Facebook.”
Over at Ars Technica they’re saying: “Some of the first data on user behavior exceeds advertisers’ worst fears.”
We are, of course, going to watch this space. In the meantime, we recommend that you answer ‘no’ to the ATT privacy question. Disabling cross-app tracking is good for your privacy.
Read our article “Apple’s New ATT and Why Facebook Is Pushing Back Hard” if you want to understand ATT better. Importantly, remember ATT doesn’t stop tracking within a single app (it’s only for cross-app tracking). You still need MySudo to keep your personal data compartmentalized and protected across different services. Watch our 90 seconds explainer.
