Just 1 in 8 iPhone users is ready to share their personal data

SINCE the last iOS update, which requires apps to ask for permission to be able to "track" the data of their users, only a tiny minority of these agree to have their activity followed. Depending on the day, this proportion varies only slightly from 11 to 13%, all the other users categorically refuse that their data be shared.

It is therefore clear that when asked for their opinion, app users refuse en masse to have their personal data analyzed for advertising purposes. The phenomenon is even more widespread in the United States, where in the first two weeks of iOS 14.5 operation, the acceptance rate for being tracked never exceeds 5%, according to Flurry statistics. This is obviously bad news for companies like Facebook, whose business model is precisely based on targeted advertising.

The latest iOS update introduced a feature found very useful by many iPhone owners and privacy advocates designed to prevent activity tracking in order to fight against the display of targeted ads, with each application having to ask its users for their consent before it can continue to track them.

Those who wish can also choose that no application collects such data. To do this, once iOS 14.5 is installed, you need to go to the "Settings" of your iPhone, then to the "Privacy" tab, select "Tracking" and uncheck the option "Allow apps to request to track." From then on, no application will ask you permission to continue tracking your online activities.

Flurry's study looked at 5.3 million iPhone users (running iOS 14.5) worldwide, including 2.5 million in the United States.