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Did you omit the following sentence on purpose? Earlier this year, Apple Inc. also began offering advertisers the ability to trail and target users through a u

by aw3c2 13y ago

Did you omit the following sentence on purpose? Earlier this year, Apple Inc. also began offering advertisers the ability to trail and target users through a unique ID on smartphones and tablets.

pilif 13y ago
In case of Apple, the ID isn't shared between apps though. Every app now gets their own ID and even that can be reset across all apps in the privacy preference pane. In earlier versions of iOS, people were using the device UUID which allowed tracking across apps, but using the UUID isn't possible any more, so tracking is now only possible within one app.
- dunham 13y ago
  Just to clarify, in the newer iOS versions there are two classes of identifier that replace the UUID: identifierForVendor is not shared across vendors, but it is shared across apps from the same vendor. identiferForAdvertising is shared across all apps, but it is not shared between devices and can be reset at any time by the user. (I think the user can suppress it altogether, but I'm not 100% sure.)
skue 13y ago
Apple's change wasn't a feature expansion, it was a limitation and clarification of how the device identifier should be used. Originally, Apple allowed all apps to access a common unique identifier tied to each device. As a developer, it's incredibly useful to identify devices -- but it also had significant privacy implications, so they deprecated this common identifier. Instead, Apple provided two alternatives: * A vendor-specific identifier that is shared among all apps created with the same vendor prefix (essentially, coming from the same company). This provides what most devs need for identifying users within their apps and even across apps. * An advertising identifier that is shared across all apps. This is intended for tracking, but Apple also provides a couple privacy protections for users: (a) users can set a flag asking apps not to perform tracking with this identifier, and (b) users can reset this identifier whenever they want –- the equivalent to clearing cookies.

by aw3c2 13y ago

Did you omit the following sentence on purpose? Earlier this year, Apple Inc. also began offering advertisers the ability to trail and target users through a unique ID on smartphones and tablets.

pilif 13y ago

In case of Apple, the ID isn't shared between apps though. Every app now gets their own ID and even that can be reset across all apps in the privacy preference pane. In earlier versions of iOS, people were using the device UUID which allowed tracking across apps, but using the UUID isn't possible any more, so tracking is now only possible within one app.

dunham 13y ago
Just to clarify, in the newer iOS versions there are two classes of identifier that replace the UUID: identifierForVendor is not shared across vendors, but it is shared across apps from the same vendor. identiferForAdvertising is shared across all apps, but it is not shared between devices and can be reset at any time by the user. (I think the user can suppress it altogether, but I'm not 100% sure.)

skue 13y ago

Apple's change wasn't a feature expansion, it was a limitation and clarification of how the device identifier should be used. Originally, Apple allowed all apps to access a common unique identifier tied to each device. As a developer, it's incredibly useful to identify devices -- but it also had significant privacy implications, so they deprecated this common identifier. Instead, Apple provided two alternatives: * A vendor-specific identifier that is shared among all apps created with the same vendor prefix (essentially, coming from the same company). This provides what most devs need for identifying users within their apps and even across apps. * An advertising identifier that is shared across all apps. This is intended for tracking, but Apple also provides a couple privacy protections for users: (a) users can set a flag asking apps not to perform tracking with this identifier, and (b) users can reset this identifier whenever they want –- the equivalent to clearing cookies.