TikTok Wants to Keep Tracking iPhone Users with State-Backed Workaround
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
TikTok wants to keep tracking iPhone users with state-backed workaround:
Some of China's biggest technology companies, including ByteDance and Tencent, are testing a tool to bypass Apple's new privacy rules and continue tracking iPhone users without their consent to serve them targeted mobile advertisements.
Apple is expected in the coming weeks to roll out changes it announced last June to iPhones that it says will give users more privacy. Until now, apps have been able to rely on Apple's IDFA system to see who clicks on ads and which apps are downloaded.
In the future, they will have to ask permission to gather tracking data, a change that is expected to deal a multibillion-dollar bombshell to the online advertising industry and has been fought by Facebook, since most users are expected to decline to be tracked.
In response, the state-backed China Advertising Association, which has 2,000 members, has launched a new way to track and identify iPhone users called CAID, which is being widely tested by tech companies and advertisers in the country.
ByteDance, the owner of the social video app TikTok, referred to CAID in an 11-page guide to app developers obtained by the Financial Times, suggesting that advertisers "can use the CAID as a substitute if the user's IDFA is unavailable."
People close to Tencent and ByteDance confirmed the companies were testing the system, but both companies declined to comment.
[...] "The big picture is that there is simply too much money at stake," [Dina Srinivasan] said. "There will always be an arms race to track consumers. Only legislation can make it stop."
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