Apple’s iOS 14.5 Is Imminent. What It Means for Your iPhone and Your Privacy.
Many have been patiently waiting for Apple’s latest iOS update and it may just be the most important one ever released. The update’s biggest change is Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature. This will require developers to request user permission before they can begin to track users.
Apple’s next update for the software on your iPhone, iOS 14.5, might be the most important one it has ever released — at least from the perspective of the company’s focus on privacy. At the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last year, Apple talked about two specific changes that were coming, and both have the potential to completely change the way we interact with software on our devices.
While the company hasn’t said when 14.5 will be available to the public, given that the seventh beta version was just released to developers, it seems that it should arrive at any time.
There were two major changes to iOS 14 that Apple talked about last year during its WWDC. The first was the “privacy nutrition labels” that every developer is required to include with their apps in the App Store. Those went live as developers updated their apps earlier this year. The other is the one getting all the attention right now.
App Tracking Transparency
By far the biggest thing coming to iOS 14.5 is Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature. This requires developers to request permission before they can track users, something many, if not most, of the apps people use every day do already. This is the change that Facebook has spent a lot of effort complaining about publicly, and it’s the change that will likely have the largest effect on advertisers.
