APPLE’S LATEST UPDATE CRIPPLES LOCATION-BASED MARKETING

Why prices for location data might soon go up. Latest Apple Update Based on Marketing

After taking on companies that track consumers all over the web, Apple has now set its sights on app publishers that track consumers all over the real world. In mid-September Apple released iOS 13, which is a software update offering new features and improvements. Among those changes: It asks users if they want to opt-in to share their location with app makers.

The iOS 13 update, for instance, will ask users if they want to allow an app publisher Bluetooth access. Although most people associate Bluetooth with sound, it can also determine a person’s location through various means, such as planting beacons at car dealerships, malls or stores. Open the Best Buy app, for example, and a prompt from Apple will display: “Best Buy would like to use Bluetooth. This will allow Best Buy to find and connect to Bluetooth accessories. This app may also use Bluetooth to know when you’re nearby.”

In the example above, the user might question why Best Buy needs Bluetooth access and deny the retailer permission to access that data altogether. Apple’s software update also prevents other methods app publishers use to track consumers. For instance, companies could previously learn a user’s location if they walked by a public WiFi hotspot. With Apple’s update, they no longer can.Apple’s iOS operating system has a 48 percent market share in the U.S., according to Amazon-owned Statista. Thus, the company’s latest update makes it significantly harder to track nearly half of all smartphone users. Apple did not return requests for comment by press time.

What it means for marketers

Apple’s update isn’t necessarily aimed at legitimate retailers such as Best Buy, but it does target app publishers that capture user location data through questionable means.

“Wallpaper apps, mobile games, a flashlight app, ringtones—these are apps where users might not have known that their locations were being collected in the first place,” says Joshua Anton, founder and CEO of data location services company X-Mode. “Apple’s latest update is going to have a bigger effect on those folks.”

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