App Tracking Transparency
By MacRumors Staff on September 3, 2026
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App Tracking Transparency How Tos
How to Stop Apps From Tracking You in iOS 14.5
Monday April 26, 2021 10:48 am PDT by Juli Clover
With the launch of iOS 14.5, apps are no longer allowed to access the IDFA or tracking advertiser on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV without your express permission, keeping your app data more private. Apps use your IDFA to track you across different apps and websites, keeping tabs on your preferences and app usage habits.
When an app wants to use your IDFA, you'll see a popup that says...
App Tracking Transparency Articles
Apple Hit With $2.7 Billion Lawsuit Over App Tracking Rules
Thursday September 3, 2026 7:46 am PDT by Hartley Charlton
Apple is facing a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) lawsuit in London accusing it of imposing stricter App Tracking Transparency rules on third party developers than on its own advertising services (via Reuters).
The case, filed at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal, follows a similar suit in which the tribunal ordered Apple to pay around £1.5 billion over App Store commissions last October, a...
Apple Agrees to Make 'App Tracking Transparency' Changes in Germany
Monday August 17, 2026 8:46 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has agreed to make changes to its App Tracking Transparency feature in Germany, according to the country's competition regulator.
Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, Apple has required apps to ask for permission before tracking a user's activity across other apps and websites for personalized advertising. If a user selects the "Ask App Not to Track" option, the app is unable...
Apple Can Still Offer a Key iPhone Privacy Feature in France, Says Judge
Tuesday January 20, 2026 4:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A judge in Paris today decided not to suspend Apple's App Tracking Transparency privacy feature in France, according to the French newspaper La Tribune.
In a statement shared with the publication, Apple said it welcomed the court's decision and will continue to support strong privacy protections for users.
Last year, Apple was fined €150 million by France's competition regulator, after it ...
Apple Hit With Supersized Fine in Italy Over an iPhone Privacy Feature
Monday December 22, 2025 7:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has imposed a €98.6 million ($116 million) fine on Apple over its App Tracking Transparency feature.
Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, Apple has required apps to ask for permission before tracking a user's activity across other apps and websites for personalized advertising, as part of a feature named App Tracking Transparency. If a user...
Germany Considering Apple's App Tracking Transparency Changes
Tuesday December 2, 2025 2:33 pm PST by Juli Clover
Germany is evaluating Apple's proposed changes to address antitrust concerns over App Tracking Transparency (ATT), reports Reuters. Apple plans to tweak the text and formatting of the ATT consent prompt, while aiming to preserve the main privacy benefits of the feature.
Apple will add neutral consent prompts for its own services and for third-party apps, aligning the wording, content, and...
Apple Faces Polish Antitrust Probe Over App Tracking Transparency
Tuesday November 25, 2025 2:23 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Poland's antitrust regulator is investigating whether Apple is restricting competition in the mobile ads market through its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, reports Reuters.
Introduced in April 2021 with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, Apple's ATT framework requires that all apps on iPhone and iPad ask for the user's consent before tracking their activity...
Apple Warns App Tracking Transparency Could Be Disabled in Europe
Thursday October 23, 2025 2:22 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple said today that it might be "forced" to disable a key anti-ad tracking feature in the European Union, reports DPA International.
"Intense lobbying efforts in Germany, Italy and other countries in Europe may force us to withdraw this feature to the detriment of European consumers," Apple said in a statement to DPA.
Apple is referring to App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a feature that ...
Apple Hit With $162 Million Fine Over App Tracking Transparency
Monday March 31, 2025 7:24 am PDT by Hartley Charlton
Apple has been fined €150 million ($162 million) by France's Competition Authority over the implementation of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework (via Bloomberg).
The French regulator concluded that the way Apple deployed its ATT feature constitutes an abuse of market dominance, finding that the system unnecessarily complicated the process for users to opt out of tracking and...
Some iPhone Users Say 'Allow Apps to Request to Track' Toggle is Suddenly Grayed Out [Fixed]
Friday May 17, 2024 9:30 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Over the past few days, some iPhone users have said the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" toggle in the Settings app is suddenly grayed out on their devices. The issue was highlighted by @iDeviceHelpus on X, and in a post on Reddit.
Apple's fine print below the grayed-out toggle says "this setting cannot be changed because a profile is restricting it, or because your Apple ID is being...
U.S. Senators Urge FTC to Investigate Apple for 'Transforming Online Advertising Into an Intense System of Surveillance'
Friday June 24, 2022 8:19 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
In a letter sent to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan today, four U.S. legislators said the FTC should "investigate Apple and Google's role in transforming online advertising into an intense system of surveillance," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Apple and Google "knowingly facilitated harmful practices by building advertising-specific tracking IDs into their mobile...
Apple Faces German Antitrust Probe Into App Tracking Transparency
Tuesday June 14, 2022 3:24 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, has initiated proceedings against Apple to investigate whether its tracking rules and anti-tracking technology are anti-competitive and self-serving, according to a press release.
The proceeding announced today will review under competition law Apple's tracking rules and specifically its App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATT) in order ...
Apple-Commissioned Report Says App Tracking Transparency Hasn't Significantly Benefitted Company
Tuesday April 26, 2022 10:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is unlikely to have seen a significant financial benefit from App Tracking Transparency since the privacy feature launched last year, according to Kinshuk Jerath, Professor of Business in the Marketing Division at Columbia Business School.
In an Apple-commissioned report, Jerath said claims that billions of advertising dollars moved from companies like Meta to Apple due to the...
Report Highlights How Top Apple Executives Disagreed Over How Far iOS Anti-Tracking Measures Should Go
Monday March 14, 2022 7:19 am PDT by Sami Fathi
A new report has highlighted how three top prominent executives initially found themselves at odds in early deliberations about Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework.
According to the report from The Information, the executives who disagreed over how far Apple should go in protecting user privacy in digital advertising included Apple's Craig Federighi, who oversees software...
Report: iOS Users Who Opt-Out of App Tracking Continue to Be Tracked by Facebook and Snapchat
Wednesday December 8, 2021 5:50 am PST by Hartley Charlton
"Loose" interpretations of Apple's privacy policies allow apps such as Facebook and Snapchat to continue tracking users for targeted advertising even when they have asked to not be tracked, The Financial Times reports.
In May, Apple launched its App Tracking Transparency feature that allows users to opt-out of being tracked across apps and websites for advertising purposes. Seven months...
Peloton Says Apple's Privacy Rules Limit Its Ability to Gain Subscribers
Friday November 5, 2021 3:57 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Peloton has become the latest company to blame Apple's ad-related privacy changes in iOS for negatively impacting its business, according to a new report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Best known for its at-home exercise equipment and online fitness classes, Peloton blamed the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rules Apple introduced in iOS 14.5 for making it more difficult to add new...
Facebook Reports Record Ad Revenue for Q2 2021, Despite Apple's iOS Privacy Changes
Thursday July 29, 2021 2:31 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Undeterred by Apple's recent anti-tracking privacy changes, Facebook continues to rake in billions in advertising revenue, as evidenced by its latest fiscal 2021 second quarter results announced Wednesday.
On the company's Q2 earnings call, the social network revealed it had accumulated $28 billion in ad revenue, representing a 56% year-on-year increase. That saw Facebook more than double...
Apple's App Tracking Transparency Framework Causing Advertisers to Spend More Money Targeting Android Users
Monday July 5, 2021 4:42 am PDT by Sami Fathi
Mobile advertisers are beginning to spend significantly more money targeting Android users thanks to Apple's implementation of a framework on iOS, severely impacting the amount of data companies can collect about users on iPhone and iPad.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, following the April roll-out of ATT, or the App Tracking Transparency framework, which requires that all apps on...
Attempts to Circumvent Apple's App Tracking Transparency Rules in China Reportedly Fail to Gain Traction
Monday July 5, 2021 12:12 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's crackdown on Chinese apps that tried to bypass its new privacy rules has successfully thwarted a coordinated effort to create a new way of tracking iPhones for advertising in the country, according to a new report today.
Introduced in iOS 14.5, Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules require apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA must ask a user's permission before...
Apps Continuing to Track Users Despite Apple's Privacy Prompt
Monday June 7, 2021 8:04 am PDT by Hartley Charlton
Apple is facing increasing pressure to tighten its App Tracking Transparency rules after it was found that third parties are using workarounds to identify users who do not consent to be tracked, according to the Financial Times.
Apple rules around App Tracking Transparency, which came into effect as part of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, require apps to ask for consent to track users across...
Apple Rolling Out Fix for Greyed Out App Tracking Transparency Toggle
Wednesday May 19, 2021 1:54 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple appears to be ironing out a bug that meant some iOS 14.5 users were unable to adjust the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" setting that was rolled out as part of Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.
In iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, ATT requires that apps ask for permission before tracking your activity across other companies' apps and websites for targeted...
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