Almost two weeks after iOS 14.5 started offering the choice of opting in to App Tracking or opting out, analytics data provides the unsurprising evidence that vanishingly few Americans are choosing to allow it.
What’s rather more surprising is that the global opt-in rate is three times higher …
Flurry Analytics is posting daily-updated numbers in a blog post.
They show that launch day opt-in was just 2% of Americans, and the percentage since then has very consistently sat at around 4%.
Until now, apps have been able to rely on Apple’s Identifier for Advertiser (IDFA) to track users for targeting and advertising purposes. With the launch of iOS 14.5 this week, mobile apps now have to ask users who have upgraded to iOS 14.5 for permission to gather tracking data. With opt-in rates expected to be low, this change is expected to create challenges for personalized advertising and attribution, impacting the $189 billion mobile advertising industry worldwide.
Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this report, Flurry will be updating every weekday by 10am Pacific Standard Time the daily opt-in rate.
Globally, however, the opt-in rate is far higher, at around 12%. Flurry’s daily data is based on 5.3M users, of which 2.5M are in the US.
The ad industry was afraid that users would largely opt-out as a matter of course, and this data does suggest that’s the case.
My personal policy is to make the choice on an app-by-app basis. App Tracking enables app developers to run personalized ads, which generate greater income for them, so where I like an app and trust the developer, I allow tracking. For others, I refuse permission.
