There’s more uproar in the data privacy world: Apple has announced that with their newest update to iOS 14, the previously optional Limit Ad Tracking function (LAT) will now be on as a default. This will force all apps and app developers to ask permission to use a user’s data or track their movement, and they’ll need to opt-in to sharing a unique device code, or the ID for Advertisers (IDFA). As Apple has said on their official iOS 14 info page: “Privacy is a fundamental human right and at the core of everything we do. That’s why with iOS 14, we’re giving you more control over the data you share and more transparency into how it’s used.”

Advertisers use the IDFA to target audiences and measure effectiveness. Just like with the cookie’s demise (as we’ve discussed here), the potential for the IDFA to be limited or disappear completely will hinder the reach and understanding advertisers have over their campaigns. Marketers will not only need to survive without cookies in their diet, but they’ll also need to find new—or in many cases, old—ways to gather audience data to aid in their targeting efforts. It may be best summed up in Apple CEO Tim Cook’s remarks on International Privacy day: "Technology does not need vast troves of personal data stitched together across dozens of websites and apps in order to succeed. Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it, and we're here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom. If a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.” The resources collected discuss a post-IDFA world and what marketers can do to adapt without it.