Apple To Improve iOS 9 User Privacy; New Policy To Prevent Third Party Apps From iPhone App Scanning

Apple has updated the privacy policy in the upcoming iOS 9 that prevents third party apps from knowing about the other apps installed by users on their iPad or iPhones, as per reports.

According to Digital Trends, with the iOS 9 coming later this year, third party app developers will no longer get an idea about the other apps on a user’s device. While this will help Apple improve user privacy, it is not a good news for marketers who make use of the information to target in-app ads based on the apps available on the user’s iPhone or iPad, reports Digital Trends.

Apple’s latest move to ensure users’ privacy was first reported by The Information. To ensure more privacy, Apple has made it difficult for app developers to access the app downloaded data for ad targeting purposes, as per The Information report,

As per Apple, Users’ web browsing history and collection of apps are considered to be equally private as both reveal much information about a user’s tastes and interests, reports Digital Trends. Third party apps, mainly, Facebook and Twitter are known to draw on a user’s app data and targets advertisements in a better way, as per the Digital Trends report.

According to The Information report via Digital Trends, advertisers have been able to access the app data through a communication API in iOS known as ‘canopenURL’ and once iOS 9 rolls out this fall, advertisers will no more be able to grab the data.

This is the latest move by Apple to assure privacy to its customers, reports Silicon Angle. The publication mentioned that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook mentioned in an open letter published last fall saying that the comp any uses minimal data it collects to make better products and not to sell advertising.

“Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you store on your iPhone,” the Silcon Angle report quoted Cook, as saying.

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