Apple to Launch New App Usage Tracking Tools for Developers to Balance User Privacy

Friday June 8, 2012 12:12 pm PDT by Eric Slivka

Last year, Apple announced that it was phasing out developer access to UDIDs, the unique iOS device identifiers that allowed developers and advertisers to not only track usage of their own content, but also in some cases track users' movements across apps and browsing sessions. The company earlier this year began rejecting apps that continued to use the UDID rather than implementing unique identifiers that would enhance privacy by remaining unique to the developer's app.

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The Wall Street Journal now reports that Apple is preparing to release new tools to assist developers with tracking usage of their apps without using the UDID, maintaining user privacy while still making it easy for developers to gather usage data on their apps.

Apple Inc. is planning to release a new way for mobile app developers to track who uses their software, according to people briefed on Apple's plans, the company's latest attempt to balance developers' appetite for targeting data with consumers' unease over how it is used.

The new tool, which could be detailed in the coming weeks, aims to better protect user privacy than existing approaches, these people said.

The report notes that Apple has been inconsistent about blocking apps that use the UDID for tracking purposes and that the new tools will provide developers with ways to collect important data anonymously without being linked to the UDID that when combined with data from other apps could be used to identify the specific user of a given device.

No other details on the tools have yet been revealed, but the company could share more information at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference.

Tag: Wall Street Journal

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Top Rated Comments

nagromme

178 months ago

Advertisers are already kicking up a stink because IE10 will have "Do not Track" enabled by default in the settings, claiming it'll hurt them because they can't track users and deliver targeted ads.

Well, theyre right: it will hurt them.

A little.

And I just cant feel any sympathy. I am not for sale unless I choose to be!

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Shrink

178 months ago

Seems to be a decent balance that will shut up the paranoid people in BOTH camps (consumers AND devs) who keep thinking the sky is falling. :cool:

If I am reading your post correctly, I would not agree that the desire to retain what remnants of privacy that remains constitutes paranoia.

I realize that I sacrifice privacy every time I go online or use certain apps, but anything that attempts to preserve some vestige of that privacy gets my vote.

It ain't paranoid if people are watching you...:D

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Yvan256

178 months ago

Something that will "better protect user privacy than existing approaches" should come with an on/off switch controllable by the user. No developer has any right to know how I am using their app, as much as they might like to know.

As a developer I would like to know if a specific device is using my App, where he lives (only the country/state/province/etc, no need for GPS coordinates), maybe local time, etc.

It's not about tracking you, it's about getting statistics about who's using the App.

Here's an example: Imagine I make an App and that I find out 90% of my users are in Canada, I might want to add more Canada-specific features to it.

And if I then find out that in those 90% of users, 70% are in Québec, I would make sure my App is 100% bilingual.

And then I find out that 85% of those users are girls/women, I might fill re-skin the interface to pink colors and add ponies. Just kidding.

But you see how that might be useful to developers. I'm guessing the "unique ID" will be unique for at least each device+app. Maybe even device+app+installation. Delete the app, re-install it and you might even get a new ID.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

LaWally

178 months ago

As a developer I would like to know if a specific device is using my App, where he lives (only the country/state/province/etc, no need for GPS coordinates), maybe local time, etc.

It's not about tracking you, it's about getting statistics about who's using the App.

Here's an example: Imagine I make an App and that I find out 90% of my users are in Canada, I might want to add more Canada-specific features to it.

And if I then find out that in those 90% of users, 70% are in Québec, I would make sure my App is 100% bilingual.

And then I find out that 85% of those users are girls/women, I might fill re-skin the interface to pink colors and add ponies. Just kidding.

But you see how that might be useful to developers. I'm guessing the "unique ID" will be unique for at least each device+app. Maybe even device+app+installation. Delete the app, re-install it and you might even get a new ID.

Of course I can see how it would useful to developers. That is not the point. The point is I should not have to be a "target" of your statistical gathering just because I buy your app. If users of your app want to opt-in that's fine by me. I just want to have a way to opt-out.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Dr McKay

178 months ago

Advertisers are already kicking up a stink because IE10 will have "Do not Track" enabled by default in the settings, claiming it'll hurt them because they can't track users and deliver targeted ads.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)