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Disabling "advertising ID" on iOS makes it extremely difficult to reliably fingerprint phones. Apple doesn't allow SDKs which attempt to bypass this, so the app

by pnw 12d ago

Disabling "advertising ID" on iOS makes it extremely difficult to reliably fingerprint phones. Apple doesn't allow SDKs which attempt to bypass this, so the app would have to have a first party auth of some type.

thrawa8387336 12d ago
Dude, FAANG still manage to do it, day in day out.
- jdm2212 12d ago
  IIRC they actually don't and it materially reduced Meta's profit when Apple rolled out the advertiser ID system.
  - throw0101d 12d ago
    "Facebook says Apple iOS privacy change will result in $10 billion revenue hit this year" (2022): * https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-priv... See also perhaps "It’s not Meta - its APPLE who have screwed us small advertisers": * https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookAds/comments/1o85w2q/ https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookAds/comments/1o85w2q/
    - DiggyJohnson 12d ago
      Wow that number is line an order of magnitude or more than I expected it would be
    - kstrauser 12d ago
      Won't someone please think of the poor advertisers? /s
    - joshspankit 12d ago
      I would be even more shocked if instead of adapting, they’ve continued to lose $10b a year
  - elevation 12d ago
    That may have been true initially but meta has enough information to heuristically observe unidentified users and compare their behaviors with known consumers. It only takes a few actions to uniquely identify a consumer with a high degree of confidence.
    - sroussey 12d ago
      Yes, it was temporary and Meta revenue and profit at all time high (before data center buildout).
    - jdm2212 12d ago
      Pretty sure Meta doesn't do that on iOS devices because that'll get you banned from the App Store. They just figured out ways to not need individual fingerprinting.
      - lokar 12d ago
        Apple does not enforce the rules uniformly
gruez 12d ago
>Disabling "advertising ID" on iOS makes it extremely difficult to reliably fingerprint phones. You got this flipped. The whole point of "fingerprinting" is to build a stable identifier that works even if a explicit identifier (IMEI or advertising ID) isn't available. And yes, there are shady SDKs that do this without facing repercussions. https://www.buchodi.com/i-broke-applovins-mediation-cipher-protocol/ https://www.buchodi.com/i-broke-applovins-mediation-cipher-p...
- pnw 6d ago
  Testing that on ten phones is hardly evidence. I am skeptical that the approach described would be very useful for reliable fingerprinting. IIRC Apple also specifically prohibits exporting device signals like boot time and available disk space, so that SDK would be in violation of their rules if the description is accurate. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/app-privacy-configuration/nsprivacyaccessedapitypes/nsprivacyaccessedapitype https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/ap...
- deleted 12d ago
  [deleted]
- what 12d ago
  That article is pure AI slop.
dzhiurgis 12d ago
> app Do they really allow any app to be downloaded on mil phones?

by pnw 12d ago

thrawa8387336 12d ago

Dude, FAANG still manage to do it, day in day out.

jdm2212 12d ago
IIRC they actually don't and it materially reduced Meta's profit when Apple rolled out the advertiser ID system.
- throw0101d 12d ago
  "Facebook says Apple iOS privacy change will result in $10 billion revenue hit this year" (2022): * https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-priv... See also perhaps "It’s not Meta - its APPLE who have screwed us small advertisers": * https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookAds/comments/1o85w2q/ https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookAds/comments/1o85w2q/
  - DiggyJohnson 12d ago
    Wow that number is line an order of magnitude or more than I expected it would be
  - kstrauser 12d ago
    Won't someone please think of the poor advertisers? /s
  - joshspankit 12d ago
    I would be even more shocked if instead of adapting, they’ve continued to lose $10b a year
- elevation 12d ago
  That may have been true initially but meta has enough information to heuristically observe unidentified users and compare their behaviors with known consumers. It only takes a few actions to uniquely identify a consumer with a high degree of confidence.
  - sroussey 12d ago
    Yes, it was temporary and Meta revenue and profit at all time high (before data center buildout).
  - jdm2212 12d ago
    Pretty sure Meta doesn't do that on iOS devices because that'll get you banned from the App Store. They just figured out ways to not need individual fingerprinting.
    - lokar 12d ago
      Apple does not enforce the rules uniformly

gruez 12d ago

>Disabling "advertising ID" on iOS makes it extremely difficult to reliably fingerprint phones. You got this flipped. The whole point of "fingerprinting" is to build a stable identifier that works even if a explicit identifier (IMEI or advertising ID) isn't available. And yes, there are shady SDKs that do this without facing repercussions. https://www.buchodi.com/i-broke-applovins-mediation-cipher-protocol/ https://www.buchodi.com/i-broke-applovins-mediation-cipher-p...

pnw 6d ago
Testing that on ten phones is hardly evidence. I am skeptical that the approach described would be very useful for reliable fingerprinting. IIRC Apple also specifically prohibits exporting device signals like boot time and available disk space, so that SDK would be in violation of their rules if the description is accurate. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/app-privacy-configuration/nsprivacyaccessedapitypes/nsprivacyaccessedapitype https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/ap...
deleted 12d ago
[deleted]
what 12d ago
That article is pure AI slop.

dzhiurgis 12d ago

> app Do they really allow any app to be downloaded on mil phones?