How the latest iOS update impacts your digital marketing campaign

Apple announced big updates for iCloud and iOS 15 at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, with a particular focus on privacy and data tracking. Newly unveiled features from the tech giant include the ability for users to load remote content privately without disclosing their IP. And also, using burner email accounts to sign up for email offers.

This comes hot on the heels of the iOS 14.5 update. This has major implications for targeted advertising on Facebook, as well as limiting the reporting of specific goals and actions on websites. This is by allowing users to opt out of personalised ads by default. These new updates, which come as part of a wider response to the debate concerning consumer privacy rights. A central feature in Apple’s iOS 15 update is Mail Privacy Protection. This comes in response to concerns about how brands gather and distribute consumer data. MMP gives users the ability to view emails without disclosing their IP.

Another feature unveiled in the new iOS update, Hide My Email, allows users to sign up for email offers with a randomly generated address from Apple in place of their own. This address operates as a burner account, with Apple forwarding the email to the user, leaving them to delete the temporary address to prevent it from being spread online. The introduction of App Privacy Reports also allows users to gain more information on how apps collect and use their personal data. The downside of the new iOS updates is primarily the risk of collecting unreliable data. Due to the new features introduced with Hide My Email, it is important that marketers monitor email deliverability.

By using customer data platforms, marketers will be able to bring consented customer data together into a unified customer profile. This makes it far more useful as it gives a fuller customer profile. The updates to iOS 15, though posing a host of new challenges, particularly as marketers are likely to feel the pinch of targeted ads being impacted in the earlier iOS 14.5 update. Which also gives both companies and marketers a chance to shape their own data and customer privacy policies. This allows them to better understand and engage with their customer base, driving increased loyalty and resulting ROI.