iOS 17, the new version of the operating system for the iPhone, is full of small features that promise to improve user security and privacy. Many of them, precisely, are in Apple apps, and one of the most interesting is Link Tracking Protectionrecently discovered macrumours via developer beta.
This feature, in particular, is capable of detecting if any link received through the Messages app, Mail or through Safari’s private browsing, has some tracking code (tracker). Code that for many people can go unnoticed. If that link includes it, iOS 17 removes it automatically so that companies or advertisers are not able to track user activity on different websites. Of course, it keeps the rest of the URL so that the page can be accessed.
Precisely, many companies – especially advertisers or the like – include a kind of code in the link. This allows them track the navigation that users make on a website, to later show advertising related to what they have been viewing or searching for. It is somewhat similar to cookies, but with one important difference. Checking if a link includes a tracking code is more complex than simply rejecting cookies on a web page.
iOS 17 is even more private
In order for advertising companies to measure their ad impressions in Safari’s private browsing, the company has devised a private click measurement system. In iOS 17, therefore, companies will be able to see conversion metrics for their respective campaigns, but without seeing the individual activity of each user.
In any case, this is not the only innovation related to privacy and security that Apple has included in iOS 17. Safari, in fact, now has a private browsing accessed by Face ID or an unlock code. Apple will also notify the user when an app has had access to the photos for several months. iOS 17 will show a notice on the screen with the possibility of choosing if we want to maintain that access. Or if, instead, we want to limit it.
Apple, let’s remember, also includes an option that allows the user to choose if they want an app to track their movements or not in order to display related advertising. This function, yes, has been available in iOS for months, so it is not necessary to update to iOS 17 to use it.