A look at iOS 14.5, which includes the App Tracking Transparency tool, allows Siri to play audio with a third-party app, enables unlocking with a mask on

With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here's what to know.

New York Times 2021-04-26 Brian X. Chen

Context & Ripple Effects

iOS 14.5 turns Apple’s earlier privacy-centric iOS controls into a more explicit choice over cross-app monitoring and sharing. The update follows Apple’s announcement that App Tracking Transparency would be enabled by default and pairs that policy change with new Siri audio routing and mask-friendly unlocking.

The related coverage also places ATT within a broader permissions-management arc: Apple detailed ad measurement tools designed without user tracking, while iOS 15 coverage points to reports showing how already-granted permissions are used.

First-order effects

iPhone users gain a direct consent decision over whether apps can monitor and share their activity, while app publishers must present that choice to retain access to tracking-based data.
Third-party audio apps gain a Siri playback path, and iPhone owners wearing masks gain an additional way to unlock their devices.

Second-order effects

Advertisers and app publishers must lean more heavily on Apple’s alternative measurement technologies when users decline tracking, shifting campaign measurement toward methods Apple defines.
Siri’s third-party audio support makes voice access a more meaningful distribution surface for audio apps, rather than limiting playback requests to Apple’s own services.

Third-order effects

Apple is moving privacy from background settings into recurring, user-visible operating-system governance, a direction reinforced by planned permission-use reporting.
If this pattern holds, platform owners will increasingly set both the consent rules for data collection and the approved tools used to measure advertising without that data.

The trend: Mobile platforms are consolidating privacy enforcement, advertising measurement, and assistant access into operating-system-level control points.

Discussion

@msmaryruthie @msmaryruthie on x
“When an app wants to follow our activities to share information with third parties such as advertisers, a window will show up on our Apple device to ask for our permission to do so. If we say no, the app must stop monitoring and sharing our data.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@stratosathens Stratos Safioleas on x
A step in the right direction: “With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others.” Here is how: https://www.nytimes.com/... @bxchen for the @nytimes
@pronewsviews @pronewsviews on x
#Apple's new software also includes two other interesting new features: the ability to use Siri to play audio with a third-party app like Spotify and the option to quickly unlock an #iPhone while wearing a mask. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@rikefranke Ulrike Franke on x
Aaaand update! Apple's iOS 14.5 update for iPhones and iPads which is launched *today* includes a new privacy tool, called App Tracking Transparency, which could give us more control over how our data is shared. #SurveillanceCapitalism https://www.nytimes.com/...
@dk_munro Daniel Munro on x
With Apple's iOS 14.5 “when an app wants to follow our activities to share information with third parties...a window will show up on our Apple device to ask for our permission to do so. If we say no, the app must stop monitoring and sharing our data.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

Chronicles