Trading Off the Orchard for an Apple: the iOS 14.5 Privacy Update

The Impact of Apple's App Tracking Transparency Framework on the App Ecosystem

“…Online user tracking-that is, the collection of users' demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data-has proliferated in the mobile app ecosystems, as the $154 billion (in the US) mobile advertising industry heavily relies on personal-level consumer data acquired through mobile apps to serve targeted advertisements (PwC and IAB, 2023). Online user tracking may be a necessity for app ecosystems to prosper: tracking allows apps to show personalized ads and sell user data to third parties (Mhaidli et al, 2019;Ekambaranathan et al, 2021), generating revenues that enable developers to create and make available apps to users at low (or zero) prices (Ribera, 2022). At the same time, increasing online tracking has led to widespread privacy concerns that have prompted regulatory bodies and private companies to implement interventions aimed at protecting consumers' privacy.…”