Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, iPhone and iPad users can tell whether or not they accept ad cookies in their apps. Called “App Tracking Transparency” (ATT), this feature caused an earthquake in the advertising community, where there were fears of a revenue collapse. Rightly so, because only a minority of users now accept trackers.
But just because we refuse snitches doesn’t mean there aren’t any. This is indeed the bitter conclusion reached by a group of security researchers who analyzed the code and behavior of 1759 iOS applications before and after the implementation of the ATT feature.
First, the researchers find that the number of trackers embedded in apps has hardly changed. We have gone from an average of 3.7 to 3.6 and it is still the same ones who appear at the top of the ranking: Apple, Google, Facebook, Alibaba… After all, hope gives life and some users may like custom ads.
What is more surprising is that some apps still transfer data, even if the user has refused tracking. And this data could well be used to establish a fingerprint of the device (“fingerprinting”) or cohort tracking. These data include the name of the terminal, its model, the operator, the language and the time zone. Application-specific identifiers can also be found there. Among the domains contacted are those of Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. “Technical” trackers — crashlytics, app-measurement, etc. — are at the top of the list. The first advertising tracker is Google’s Doubleclick, detected on 12% of applications.
But it gets even worse: researchers have detected nine apps that rely on alternative identifiers generated by Umeng, an Alibaba subsidiary. A practice that most likely conflicts with ATT rules. Apple was alerted to this in November 2021 and an investigation is ongoing.
The researchers conclude by believing that the ATT is not only an imperfect measure, but it could even cause the opposite of what was expected. Advertising players seem to be developing circumvention strategies that make the use of applications even less transparent than before!
Source : Study report