LinkedIn to stop collecting tracking data before Apple shames it

LinkedIn on iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

LinkedIn is going to stop tracking IDFA data.
Apple is going to start making apps ask permission before they can track that data in the future.

LinkedIn today announced that it will stop collecting Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) data. This comes as Apple gears up to force apps that do collect such data to ask users for their permission first.

Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature is set to go into effect later this year and apps will be forced to ask a user's permission before they can be tracked from one app to another. That's normally how advertisers do their thing, but LinkedIn is getting ahead of the game to make sure Apple doesn't shame it on every iPhone it's installed on.

We want to share an update on our plans and guidance to help you prepare for these changes. We have decided to stop our iOS apps' collection of IDFA data for now. Although this change affects the LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN), Conversion Tracking and Matched Audiences, we expect limited impact to your campaign performance, and don't foresee major changes required for your campaign set-up.While we will regularly reevaluate our collection of IDFA, we are committed to privacy-by-design principles that deliver value to our customers and provide a trusted experience for our members. Our plan is to leverage our first-party data to help marketers reach buyer groups, which are critical for success in B2B marketing, so they can achieve better value for their campaigns across all LinkedIn placements.

While LinkedIn says that it does expect the move to impact the LinkedIn Audience Network, it doesn't foresee any huge drop-offs in performance.

Facebook has spent the last few months complaining about Apple's privacy push, while Twitter believes it will be a win overall.

While we're all focused on privacy, we should probably make sure that our screens are private with a cool screen protector as well.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.