Urgent warning as Facebook and Snapchat caught ‘spying’ on iPhone users even if they’ve opted out of data tracking

APPLE iPhone users who have opted out of app tracking are still being tracked by Facebook and Snapchat, according to a Financial Times report.

Since Apple released its iOS 14.5 update earlier this year, iPhone users have had the ability to control and monitor who is tracking their data via the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

GettyFacebook and Snapchat are collecting iPhone users’ data[/caption]

The feature, which was first announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2020, allows you “to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers,” according to Apple’s website.

At first glance that description might indicate that your data is safe, however, ticking “opt-out” on your iPhone’s settings does not mean that companies can’t still get their hands on your activity and information.

A number of apps, who profit heavily from users’ data, have figured out a way around the privacy feature due to a “loophole” in Apple’s design.

The so-called crack in the system is that while Apple’s ATT prevents companies from sharing your unique and identifiable data with third parties, it does not entirely prohibit them from collecting your data.

Basically, companies like Facebook and Snapchat are sharing that data in anonymized and aggregated groups, according to the Financial Times report.  

“These companies point out that Apple has told developers they ‘may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it’,” the report stated.

“This means they can observe ‘signals’ from an iPhone at a group level, enabling ads that can still be tailored to ‘cohorts’ aligning with certain behavior but not associated with unique IDs,” the report added.

Still, even in the case of anonymized data, where names, addresses, and phone numbers have been stripped, it is still possible to track users and identify them, as one study in the journal Nature Communications found.

From a legal standpoint, Apple seems to be within its bounds to allow companies to collect your data.

And, according to the Financial Times, this type of tracking is considered to be an industry-standard, or as the report stated, “becoming the norm.”

If you want to monitor the tracking activity on your iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking.

AlamyCompanies like Facebook and Snapchat depend on your data for advertising profits[/caption]

In other news,  iPhone owners are being urged to change their settings in order to protect their texts from snoopers.

Google has officially released a new privacy feature that could erase important photos forever.

And, we rounded up 13 common toaster mistakes.