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IDFA is not shared per app, only across developer accounts. Your Facebook and Snapchat apps don't see the same IDFA.

by dymk 8y ago

olliej 8y ago
Ok I edited my answer but literally all my research indicates that it is per device - all apps irrespective of developer see the same ID. It was specifically created to replace the UDID that could never be changed at all. So I am irked I didn’t research before editing :-/
- arcticbull 8y ago
  It's strange because I had the same impression. I remember the whole migration from UDID to application advertising identifiers... I swear each app got their own IDFA token, and that it didn't persist across app installs. I guess I was mistaken also, because it only resets on manual reset or device erasure. The APIs for this are very clear: var advertisingIdentifier: UUID { get } "Unlike the identifierForVendor property of the UIDevice, the same value is returned to all vendors. This identifier may change—for example, if the user erases the device—so you should not cache it."
  - olliej 8y ago
    Yeah, my original comment was correct unlike the very confident correction. The problem is periodic rolling of the ID doesn’t get you anything as any tracking service is simply going to track when the value changes in all the apps, and so all different IDFA tokens can always be tied to a single individual. Rolling, automatic or not, and irrespective of frequency gains you nothing. Tracking companies have repeatedly demonstrated a complete disregard for user privacy. The /only/ way to fix this is to remove device centric ids from the platform. Then tracking frameworks can’t tied one user to multiple different app installs. None of this “automatic rolling” nonsense - the API should not be there at all.
cocochanel 8y ago
What? IDFA is device universal and only reset manually by the user.
lultimouomo 8y ago
They do see the same IDFA, that's how apps using the Facebook SDK can link analytics with a Facebook user profile even without asking you to login into Facebook, as long as you have the Facebook app installed and you're logged in there.
product50 8y ago
You obviously don't know how things work. So please stop saying factually incorrect things as matter of fact statements.

IDFA is not shared per app, only across developer accounts. Your Facebook and Snapchat apps don't see the same IDFA.

by dymk 8y ago

IDFA is not shared per app, only across developer accounts. Your Facebook and Snapchat apps don't see the same IDFA.

Ok I edited my answer but literally all my research indicates that it is per device - all apps irrespective of developer see the same ID. It was specifically created to replace the UDID that could never be changed at all. So I am irked I didn’t research before editing :-/

arcticbull 8y ago
It's strange because I had the same impression. I remember the whole migration from UDID to application advertising identifiers... I swear each app got their own IDFA token, and that it didn't persist across app installs. I guess I was mistaken also, because it only resets on manual reset or device erasure. The APIs for this are very clear: var advertisingIdentifier: UUID { get } "Unlike the identifierForVendor property of the UIDevice, the same value is returned to all vendors. This identifier may change—for example, if the user erases the device—so you should not cache it."
- olliej 8y ago
  Yeah, my original comment was correct unlike the very confident correction. The problem is periodic rolling of the ID doesn’t get you anything as any tracking service is simply going to track when the value changes in all the apps, and so all different IDFA tokens can always be tied to a single individual. Rolling, automatic or not, and irrespective of frequency gains you nothing. Tracking companies have repeatedly demonstrated a complete disregard for user privacy. The /only/ way to fix this is to remove device centric ids from the platform. Then tracking frameworks can’t tied one user to multiple different app installs. None of this “automatic rolling” nonsense - the API should not be there at all.

cocochanel 8y ago

What? IDFA is device universal and only reset manually by the user.

lultimouomo 8y ago

They do see the same IDFA, that's how apps using the Facebook SDK can link analytics with a Facebook user profile even without asking you to login into Facebook, as long as you have the Facebook app installed and you're logged in there.

product50 8y ago

You obviously don't know how things work. So please stop saying factually incorrect things as matter of fact statements.