Google stops using Apple tools to detect iPhone users, and avoids new pop-up alert

(Reuters) – Google’s iPhone apps like Maps and YouTube will stop using an Apple Inc. tool that enables them to personalize ads, and avoid a new Apple alert alerting users to follow .

The announcement in a Wednesday blog post by the Alphabet Inc unit comes shortly before Apple is expected to start applying new rules for tracking transparency.

For years, Apple has been providing a unique identifier, known as IDFA, to apps to help them connect the same user across different applications. The code may be necessary to determine to whom to place an ad and to check if it prompted them to make a purchase.

But Apple said it earlier this year required apps to show users a one-time pop-up message to gain their permission to access their IDFA.

Facebook Inc. and other application makers are concerned that the warning could discourage users from recording and paralyzing ad sales.

Since users of Google’s applications are typically logged in, it has a tracking alternative for IDFA, and therefore the core advertising business is unlikely to be affected by Apple’s changes.

But in his blog post, he warns that publishers and advertisers who rely on their mobile advertising software will experience poorer results without IDFA access.

Google has said it is developing alternatives for customers, but it may not be ready immediately.

Google added that customers can use the software regardless of whether they show the pop-up and obtain the necessary permission, and that they do not make any recommendations on what to do.

Apple said that applications that do not use IDFA should still ask the user’s permission if they show and measure ads based on data obtained from other companies.

To comply, Google has said that its iPhone applications will no longer use so-called third-party data to personalize ads.

Facebook said last month that they plan to display the pop-up asking for users’ permission.

“Apple has made it clear that if we do not use Apple’s request to block Facebook from the App Store, it will further harm the people and businesses that rely on our services each month,” he said.