The Mozilla Foundation launched a petition Monday that called on Apple to rotate iPhone tracking IDs every month. It wants Apple to make it harder for advertisers to build profiles of users.
Privacy. That’s iPhone?
All iPhones have a unique ID called an ” “identifier for advertisers” (IDFA). Users can disable the ID. However, the Mozilla Foundation wants Apple to rotate IDFAs on a monthly basis. They believe that not enough users know about IDFAs or how to disable them. The Mozilla Foundation argued that users would still get served meaningful ads if Apple rotated IDFAs. However, they said it would make it harder for advertisers to build profiles.
[This Mozilla iOS Ad Tracking Petition Doesn’t Make Sense]
Ashley Boyd, Mozilla’s Vice President of Advocacy said that IDFAs are “like a salesperson following you from store to store while you shop and recording each thing you look at. ” She said that despite Apple’s latest advertising slogan being ‘Privacy. That’s iPhone’ IDFAs are “not very private at all.”
The Mozilla executive said if Apple were to introduce rotating IDFAs “it won’t just improve the privacy of iPhones — it will send Silicon Valley the message that users want companies to safeguard their privacy by default.”