According to a study published earlier this week, Snapchat and Facebook are reported to have been continuing to share aggregated user data by exploiting a loophole in Apple's App Tracking Transparency standards.
A recent investigation from The Information delved deeper into this, with a particular focus on Snap's solution.
App Tracking Transparency appeared to be a requirement for developers to ask users for permission before tracking them across multiple apps and websites.
When a user first launches an app, they are asked if they wish to allow the app and its creator permission to "monitor your activities across other companies' applications and websites."
Apple App Tracking Transparency
Whereas Apple's App Tracking Transparency regulations indicate that programmers cannot track users or link user or device data between different apps or services, however, the guidelines do not define "linking," which has supposedly created "wiggle room" even when users explicitly tap "Ask App Not to Track."
According to Apple's App Tracking, Apple's regulations state that combining "user or device data" from one app with similar data from other applications to better target advertising or determine if they work is prohibited.
As per 9To5Mac, even though an estimated 80% of Apple iOS users worldwide have opted out of tracking for at least one app, app developers are still sending data about users that might be used to identify them later.
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Apple App Tracking
Snapchat's workaround, dubbed Advanced Conversions, allows it to get extensive information from ad-tech companies on the activities of specific iPhone users.
Snap is reportedly able to gauge the effectiveness of ads, even if a user asked the software sending data to Snap not to track them using that data.
The key to Snap's strategy, however, is that the data about "who had seen an ad on Snapchat and also what they were doing in other apps after that are obscured with encryption so they can't be connected back to an individual."
Snap does not feel their system violates Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules, according to The Information.
Similar systems have apparently been developed by Facebook and Google, both of which think they do not breach the standards.
Snap on Apple App Tracking
The company stated that it uses complex mathematical modeling on the data it receives to determine the likelihood that an opted-out user took a specific action after seeing an ad in its app.
Facebook and Google have both stated that they have developed methods that are similar.
They, like Snap, discuss the methodologies they use to determine how effective ad campaigns are at a high level on their websites.
Google said it utilizes data from iOS users who have chosen not to be tracked in a privacy-preserving fashion that it believes in compliance with Apple's regulations.
However, when it comes to the Apple app tracking transparency, Facebook did not release any official statement regarding this matter.
Despite the fact that Snapchat, Facebook, and Google are said to have invented these technologies, corporations such as Facebook and Snap have acknowledged revenue losses as a result of App Tracking Transparency.
An Apple spokesman stated that the company's App Tracking Transparency initiative has got tremendous support from privacy groups and authorities.
A user's data belongs to them, and they should be able to choose whether and with whom they share it.
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