One of the new features that Apple introduced in iOS 11 was an update to its Safari mobile browser, where the company added an “Intelligent Tracking Prevention” tool. This tool was designed to prevent ads and websites from tracking users across the entire internet, meaning that whatever tracking is being done can only be done on the website you are visiting.Unsurprisingly advertisers weren’t too thrilled by it and now in a report from The Guardian, it seems that this has had some pretty disastrous consequences for advertising companies as the feature is said to have cost them millions of dollars in revenue. Given how many iOS devices there are in the market right now, it isn’t surprising that this has had such a huge impact.
Speaking to The Guardian, Dennis Buchheim, general manager of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Tech Lab said, “There will surely be some continued efforts to ‘outwit’ ITP, but we recommend more sustainable, responsible approaches in the short-term. We also want to work across the industry (ideally including Apple) longer-term to address more robust, cross-device advertising targeting and measurement capabilities that are also consumer friendly.”
Apple isn’t alone in trying to cut back on these creepy ads or ads in general. Other companies such as Google are also planning on introducing native ad blocking features for ads that don’t meet certain guidelines. This isn’t so much about blocking all ads, but rather ads that are intrusive, which Google is hoping to spark a change in the way ads are served on websites.