Apple launched the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in the official version of iOS 14.5, which allows users to control which apps can track their activities in other companies’ apps and websites. A piece of criticism from the advertising industry.
A new report shows that three Apple executives also disagreed during an early review of the AT&T framework. According to a report by The Information, executives who dissent over how far Apple should go in protecting user privacy in digital advertising include Apple’s Craig Federighi, who oversees software engineering, Phil Schiller, who manages the App Store, and the head of Apple’s services. People Eddy Cue.
The idea for ATT first appeared in 2019. Eric Neuenschwander, the inventor of the advertising identifier IDFA, regrets creating the tool that allowed users’ privacy to be continuously collected by developers. So when Federighi told Neuenschwander the idea, ATT was born.
As AT&T’s research deepens, divisions have emerged among Apple executives, according to sources familiar with Apple’s internal meetings. AT&T’s original vision was to disable app tracking altogether, but it sparked objections from two executives.
Phil Schiller, who manages the App Store, is concerned that ATT will affect the App Store ecosystem and the mobile ads running in apps, resulting in fewer app downloads and potentially fewer in-app purchases. Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of services, worries that ATT’s overreach in eliminating tracking will undermine IDFA.
And Craig Federighi, who oversees software engineering, strongly supports AT&T, arguing that unscrupulous advertising companies, mobile developers and data brokers are using IDFA to track iPhone users. The dissent from the three executives eventually led to the final version of AT&T, in which Apple provides users with a simple prompt when they first open the app, asking if they want to be tracked.
In the fall of 2019, Federighi led members of the software engineering department to begin the development of ATT and to complete development by June 2020. In response to the report, an Apple spokesperson responded to The Information that the company’s teams are all working together, putting the same effort into privacy innovation as all product designs, providing users with better choices and better quality products.