Privacy is on everyone’s mind these days, and in iOS 14.5, which is beginning to roll out to the public today, there are new privacy features that may make you happy but aren’t endearing Apple to other companies — particularly Facebook.
App Tracking Transparency is the name of the new feature. Many apps track not only your movements within the app but also your movements outside of it — in other words, where you go after you’ve exited the app. This is why you see ads for products you were just looking at on Amazon or other sites on Facebook and other apps.
You could turn off tracking for all of your apps before 14.5, by going to Settings > Privacy > Tracking and unchecking “Allow Apps to Request to Track.” You can be more specific with the new iOS version. First, you won’t have to do anything when you install a new app; you’ll be asked whether you want the new app to automatically track you.
You can go to the same Tracking page to see which apps have asked for permission to track and possibly change their tracking settings. You’ll be able to grant or revoke permission there. As a result:
- Select Privacy > Tracking from your iPhone’s settings.
- You’ll now see a list of specific apps that have asked for that permission beneath “Allow Apps to Request to Track.” For each individual app, you can grant or deny permission.
- You can still turn off permission for all of your current (and future) apps by using “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
