At WWDC on June 7-11, Apple announced a host of privacy features for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS8 to be rolled out in the fall. These updates will allow users to see who their apps are sharing data with, allow for more private internet browsing on Safari, and clamp down on email tracking. Other feature rollouts include device-only audio processing for Siri, Facetime improvements, and digital records for Apple Wallet.
What’s changing: New Privacy Features including App Privacy Report, Mail Privacy Protection, Private Relay, Hide My Email
- App Privacy Report: an extension of App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rolled out with iOS14.5 that allows users to see how often an app uses the permission they’ve granted (such as location, photos, microphone) and all the third-party domains with which the app shares data
- Mail Privacy Protection: allows users to hide their IP address and email open status from email senders on the Apple Mail app
- Private Relay: (available to users with iCloud+ subscription) acts as a virtual private network (VPN) when browsing on Safari
- Hide My Email: (available to users with iCloud+ subscription) allows users to generate an email that routes to their permanent email address while, keeping it private; limited to Safari, Mail, iCloud email
While SKAdNetwork is not new, updates to its Advertiser Post-Back feature will provide app advertisers with direct access to attribution reports previously only shared with publishers. This will enable better verification and may also allow advertisers to perform more custom analyses of app campaigns without changing the overarching privacy reporting mechanism.
Impact on Advertisers - Upcoming Privacy Features
High Impact
- Private Relay: Identity partners and ID graph partners that rely on IP address as a signal for identity will no longer be able to access a user’s IP address on Safari
- Hide My Email: Randomized, obfuscated emails could significantly impact the scale and accuracy of email-based identity solutions, such as Unified ID 2.0, which depend on matching hashed emails
Moderate Impact
- Mail Privacy Protection: Marketers will no longer be able to accurately track email open rate or IP address on the Mail app, affecting their ability to measure responses
- App Privacy Report: While this allows users to more transparently understand how their data is being used and shared, it does not prevent advertisers from using data unless a user opts out of tracking
These announcements indicate a pattern around privacy and anti-tracking features that is likely to continue, emphasizing the importance of a privacy-centric approach to campaign targeting and measurement. Kepler continuously monitors new developments and updates our clients as new developments are made
