Here Comes iOS 14

Welcome to 2020 marketers, on the left we have GDPR, on the right we have CCPA, which looks like most average consumers know a little about, but have chosen not to make a big deal of or go out of their way to opt in to. Still we need to be vigilant to make sure we are not blind sided by a hyper socially conscious "I am worried about being spied on" consumer hell bent (with the help of a lawyer) to sue all data companies and advertisers into oblivion.

Up ahead we now have Apple and iOS 14......well that's it. I guess I'm going to have to go back to school and run up more student debt (seeing as how I just paid off my student loans from 30 years ago) so that I can make a pivot into another industry Apple, Google and Amazon can totally destroy. Seriously? do any of the "experts" writing the articles on iOS 14 have their hands on the developer version? Have they actually used any of these "industry changing" "privacy enhancers" that Apple is touting?

Look, I love "click bait" as much as the next person, and have even fallen for an article or two or three. So, before any of you start getting out the cardboard boxes and packing your desks because "this is the end of mobile advertising as we know it" let me give some facts (most people will ignore just like the whole COVID pandemonium....I mean pandemic.). In one article I noticed that the writer said they believed 99% of the users of iOS 14 will opt in to not having their info shared like location, or having to sign in with a email. I have seen these features and you will have three options, 1. Always allow, 2. Allow while using or 3. Never allow when it comes to sharing your location with an app. If you choose option 3 "Never Allow"....cue Willy Wonka "you lose....you get nothing!". Basically the app will be unable to show any information that needs your location. Which for weather apps is everything and for retail apps is the ability to show you the closest location you can get curbside delivery at. What this prevents the data and advertising companies from seeing is either your location while you are using the app (public hot spots with a million other users or home), or where you are at all the time in the case of always allow.

The second privacy gateway is when signing in to certain sites or apps. It will ask if you want to use your email or if you would rather use your Apple ID which Apple will then anonymize and send a bogus ID on your behalf that will be paired on their back end so only you and Apple know its you. Keep in mind, if you switch from an iPhone no one yet knows if you will be able to revert back to signing in the way you did before all this wonderfulness. But what is interesting to me to see will be how many people think this will make them completely invisible. and in addition trust Apple that much. Did I mention a recent check of Apples website for Job openings showed they are looking for data scientists to help them with their new treasure trove of consumer data and how to leverage it for advertising on the Apple platforms?

I think I will wait and go down with the ship again here. While I sometimes believe the third time is the charm (GDPR, CCPA and now this), and I do believe Amazon and Google will also follow suit (I'm still morning the loss of cookies), I think the predictions of 99% of the market will choose to "opt in"are vastly over blown. Lets first consider how much of the market is using iPhones, then look at other studies that say anywhere from 60-75% of consumers would give up their location or other information if it meant they would get a better deal and I do think I will stand and wave goodby to a few consumers who will follow like sheep in the name of being "awoken".

Disclaimer - "these are my views only. They do not reflect my employers or my customers and therefore should be taken as opinion only, based on industry data and past consumer behavior".

Feel free to leave comments, I'm pretty thick skinned the blood donation spots tell me.They also have my data.