According to the latest report, advertising industry experts have expressed concern about the future expansion of Apple’s privacy features on the iPhone, including the recently released Private Relay and Hide My Email.
Moreover, Apple released both features as part of its iOS 15 software update, bringing new privacy protections months after it released App Tracking Transparency, a privacy mechanism that has battered revenue for the mobile advertising industry.
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Both Hide My Email and Private Relay are only available for users who pay for iCloud storage. However, according to The Information, many ad industry watchers are concerned that Apple could expand the privacy feature or roll it out to a wider user base.
“It took the industry collectively holding its breath,” said Grant Simmons, vice president of advertising firm Kochava, a performance-tracking firm. The ad industry is concerned about these features because they threaten two data metrics IP address and email an approach advertisers have been using to mitigate the impact of App Tracking Transparency (ATT).
Moreover, a private relay works like a virtual private network, masking the user’s IP address from the website or application operator and encrypting network traffic. Hide My Email “Creates a randomly generated email address that forwards the message to the user’s primary inbox”.
While private relay prevents the ATT workaround that many companies take, Hide My Email will make it harder to know which customers purchased its goods and services, complicating future advertising efforts targeting those customers.
Marketing consultant Robert Jewe said Apple “will continue to grab different parts of advertising and marketing.” He likened the privacy feature to a “tax” on advertisers.
Furthermore, Apple’s privacy moves may have inspired other companies to follow. Google, for example, said it plans to bring Apple-like privacy features to Android — further threatening the advertising industry.
While these features impact the wider privacy industry, The Information reports that Apple’s own ad business has blossomed over the past few years. Apple’s advertising business will generate about $4 billion in revenue in 2021, up from $300 million in 2017. Analysts believe this figure could expand to at least $10 billion in the future.
Despite advertisers’ concerns about Apple’s privacy protections, the Cupertino tech giant said customer response to the features has been “very positive.”
