How iOS 14 Privacy Features Impact Your App Development

Apple recently released the annual major update of its mobile operating system. iOS 14 introduces a host of privacy features. And some of those are worrying social media companies and app developers alike. These can, in fact, have significant implications on your iPhone app development project if you don’t deal with them strategically.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the most striking privacy-related features in iOS 14. We’ll also talk about how these features have the potential to impact your iPhone app development services. Let’s dive right in.

Top Privacy Features in iOS 14

Apple is giving users the option to enable an IDFA identifier at the app level. That means apps would require permission from users before using their personal data.

Changes in IDFA & targeted ads

The update in the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is one of the top privacy features in iOS 14. The IDFA is used for targeting and measuring the effectiveness of ads on a user level. With iOS 14, every time a user installs an app, they need to opt-in IDFA. Likewise, a mobile app development company must provide a summary of its privacy policy. Users can decide their IDFA preferences based on the app’s privacy practices.

If an app user chose to block IDFA, marketing campaigns would become ineffective. Also, advertisers would no longer be able to target iPhone users based on their behaviors. In other words, retargeting will not work in the iPhone app development process. Besides, since IDF would have limited access, brands would not be able to show relevant ads.

More control over geolocation

iOS users already have control over which apps can have access to their geolocation data. Users can manage it through the Location Service in settings. iOS 14 further enhances this control. iPhone users can now entirely opt-out of the location-sharing functionality. It’s likely to significantly impact the services of apps that rely on the precise locations of the user.

App installation changes

iOS 14 features an updated interface that enables users to notify the ad network when a marketing campaign uses an app installation conversion. It would affect mobile app ad campaigns that want to benefit from engagements other than app downloads.

Tracking & privacy report

Apple devices have an in-built feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention. It automatically blocks cross-platform tracking. If your mobile app design services build solutions that rely on such tracking, you need to have a new strategy.

iPhones running on iOS 14 will get a privacy report for the user in addition to the ITP. The report will inform users about companies that use their data.

The update is likely to create a perception that every company wants to track users’ activities. Brands rely on an array of parameters to analyze the target audience for ads. These include frequency capping, behavior-based targeting, and ad spending distribution, among others. With the tracking reports, all these will become harder to implement.

Wrapping up

Privacy has consistently remained a top priority for Apple. With these extensive privacy-focused features, brands and app developers alike need to shape-shift their strategies. If you’re planning to partner with a mobile app development company for an iOS app project, discuss these before starting the project. Only through expertise-based measures can smartly deal with these data usage-related challenges. For that, you need to consult data privacy specialists and iOS app artisans before finalizing your app’s design.

The author works for a leading web development company and is an expert in rendering professional website design for all types businesses.