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You can measure conversions without relying on personally identifiable information. Adding e.g. a non-personal tag to your URL will enable you to track the sour
by ThePhysicist 6y ago
You can measure conversions without relying on personally identifiable information. Adding e.g. a non-personal tag to your URL will enable you to track the source of a conversion. If this happens in a browser you can even store that (non-personal) information in the localStorage or a cookie, so even if the user doesn't convert immediately and only comes back after e.g. a week you will be able to tie the conversion to the specific ad. Where in that process do you need personally identifiable information?
Also, Facebook doesn't only use these identifiers for conversion tracking, it uses them to create a persistent profile of a person that often ends up containing a ton of sensitive information. Believe it or not, a lot can be inferred about you from your app downloads and website visits. As of now FB was mostly able to perform this kind of tracking without the user really knowing, the only thing Apple does here is drag this practice into the open and give users a real choice.
In my opinion a privacy-first OS should inhibit any kind of cross-app / cross-device personal tracking, I predict this will happen in the next 5-10 years, for now it seems to be too extreme still.
- fingerlocks 6y agoI never said personally identify, just uniquely. The IDFA, the thing surrounding all of this drama, does exactly what you describe.
- ThePhysicist 6y agoWell, a unique identifier that is tied to a specific device is considered personal information.
- fingerlocks 6y agoEven if you can change it at will?
- ThePhysicist 6y agoYes, even then. If that wasn't the case it would be trivial to circumvent the GDPR, as then basically any pseudonymous data would be considered non-personal. A Google Analytics user ID is also random and can be changed at any time, still the data that Google collects is considered personal.
- fingerlocks 6y agoWe aren’t discussing the collection of user data here. The IDFA ad system does not require anything more to function as described. While in practice some user data is used to make a hash to increase the conversion accuracy, it’s by no means necessary.
- vvG94KbDUtRa 6y ago> You can measure conversions without relying on personally identifiable information. Adding e.g. a non-personal tag to your URL will enable you to track the source of a conversion That literally is what we're talking about