As the privacy debate continues in the mobile marketing industry, Apple appears to be helping its users decide whether they want tailored, relevant messages or irrelevant, non-targeted messages with a new feature called ‘identifierForAdvertising’ (IDFA).

IDFA is a new non-permanent, non-personal, device identifier that advertising networks will be able to use to give iPhone owners more control over advertisers’ ability to use tracking methods on them. The unveiling of this new feature ends months of speculation as to the steps Apple was taking after it announced it would no longer support Unique Device Identifier (UDID) with iOS 6.

The UDID was the unique number that Apple and developers used since the iPhone launched in 2007. The UDID would stay constant, collecting information and delivering advertising to the device. Apple announced that it would be discontinuing it 18 months ago for privacy reasons, as the UDID cannot be reset, meaning that if a device gets sold, the new owners profile data would get mixed in with the former owner’s.

Privacy concerns
Like the UDID, IDFA is unique to a device and enable advertisers to track mobile media conversion – even cross-app data for better targeting techniques. IDFA doesn’t contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII) as users can opt out: it’s able to limit advertising tracking at any time, which helps to address privacy concerns. For users who do opt out, IDFA allocates a different value to the device to prevent tracking. Should they opt-in to targeted advertising, the device will only start tracking once the iPhone user gives their permission. Another significant improvement over UDID is that when a phone is reset or sold to a new user, the IDFA resets all information to provide a clean slate.

When Apple announced iOS 6 in June, it also revealed that over 80 per cent of its users had upgraded their devices to iOS 5, compared with just seven per cent of Android users upgrading their handsets to run Android 4.0. The roll out of iOS 6 will see millions of devices moving to Apple’s new advertiser tools. This requires publishers, advertising networks, and advertisers across the industry to convert to IDFA. With the transition to iOS 6, IDFA should prove to be more accurate, efficient, and consistent in its use of user data information which will deliver better campaigns and push mobile marketing forward.

Following the release of iOS 6 on 19 September, a large proportion of iOS owners were expected to upgrade to the new software in the first few weeks. Data from Chitika Insights from October 2011 shows that over a third of iPhone owners (37.7 per cent) had upgraded to iOS 5 in the first two weeks of its release. Based on this behaviour, mobile marketers can expect the majority of iOS owners to upgrade to the latest software to take advantage of the new features.

Targeted ads
If iPhone users choose to limit ad tracking, advertising networks using the Advertising Identifier can no longer gather information to serve them targeted ads. Apple has already said that in the future, all advertising networks will be required to use the Advertising Identifier. However, until advertising networks transition to using the IDFA, users may still receive targeted ads from other networks.

Turning on the new feature won’t remove ads from devices or the ability to track conversion of mobile media campaigns. The ads that do get delivered will instead be more generic, non-personalized and non-targeted to the interests and actions of the iPhone user.

Apple’s documentation for the new ‘Ad Support’ application programming interface (API) suggests that elements such as frequency capping, conversion events, and unique users’ estimation are still permitted to provide a certain amount of measurement tools, to help quantify the effectiveness of campaigns.

As well as IDFA, iOS 6 introduces a new publisher-specific identifier (identifierForVendor or IDVA). With these new IDs, it’s important for advertisers and publishers to update their software development kits (SDK) in order to make use of the new features. Those that do not update and continue to use existing SDKs that capture UDID, MAC addresses, or which use a cookie-based solution or a device fingerprint, will find that their campaigns are not tracked as accurately or provide limited measurement on devices running iOS 6 (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad).

The mobile marketing industry now has a responsibility, on behalf of clients, to help educate consumers as to the benefits of sharing information, in order to receive better, more relevant and more targeted advertising. Targeted advertising is more useful because it provides specific information based on the consumers own interests and behaviours, and is not just irrelevant ‘noise’. Brands and marketers also benefit from better targeting thanks to IDFA providing a scalable and accurate way to track mobile media conversion on all iOS 6 Apple devices. With the new software, brands and marketers can capture more details for apps that will prove to be beneficial for tracking and delivering better, more successful campaigns.

Eric Mugnier is senior vice president of M&C Saatchi Mobile