IDFA Tracking
What is IDFA?
The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device.
Advertisers use the IDFA to identify users across apps to deliver personalised and targeted advertising, run frequency capping, measure campaign performance, and attribute impressions and clicks to app installs.
The IDFA is used for tracking and identifying a user (without revealing personal information).
What's changed?
With the release of iOS 14 Apple have made a change which means apps will need to request permissions to use the IDFA token.
Key Points
On devices running iOS 13.x and lower the IDFA can be continue to be used without requesting permissions.
On iOS 14+ you can continue to attempt to access the IDFA without requesting permissions, however Apple will provide an anonymous token similar to
0000-0000-0000-0000which will make it useless for tracking unique users.To get an IDFA on iOS 14+ apps have to request specific permission to the user where they can accept or reject the tracking. Users can choose to reject this permission in which case an anonymous token will be provided.
Users will only been shown this prompt once and their preference will be remembered. They'll only be shown it again if they delete and reinstall the app.
Similar to requesting permissions to access the camera, we have control over the body text that is displayed.
If an attempt is made to request an IDFA without a permission description being available the app will crash.
A note on ID for Vendors (IDFV)
Apple states we can continue using the ID for Vendors (IDFV) for analytics tracking as we currently do without requesting permissions from the user.
Our Solution
Monterosa / Interaction Cloud™ update
Although we don't specifically request the IDFA it's possible a third party SDK might do in the future, so to avoid a crash we need to provide copy explaining why we need permissions.
A new mandatory field has been added to M/IC in-order to customise this copy.
SDK updates
Brightcove Player IMA SDK
Brightcove Player IMA SDK (6.7.8) is an update which removes all references to the IDFA to sidestep Apple's new privacy changes.
Google IMA SDK
Google IMA SDK is a dependency of Brightcove Player IMA. Google have an official iOS 14 SDK release for Apple's privacy changes (3.12.1) but the Brightcove SDK has not yet been updated to use it. We expect this update to happen in the near future.
Resources
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