Over the past few months, there has been a lot of accusations leveled at giant tech corporations, such as Apple and Google, on how they were providing data to government agencies like the NSA in order for them to spy on US citizens. Whether or not that is true, or to what extent the data is shared, we guess we will never truly know, however an interesting report from AdAge would seem to suggest that Apple takes the protection of its user data very seriously, to the point where it might actually be hurting the company’s iAd sales.
According to the report, ad buyers felt that Apple was being “downright stingy” with the amount of customer information that they were willing to share. For example buyers want to know information about customers so as to better cater ads to them, such as geographical information, purchase history, media interests, and so on. However it seems that Apple’s reluctance to share said information has ad buyers feeling that the Cupertino company has no real interest in fostering relationships.
One of the ways developers can make money from free apps is by incorporating ads into the app. iAds was introduced in 2010 but many felt that the feature felt more like an afterthought rather than something that Apple had planned all along. That being said, AdAge reports that “Perhaps the biggest issue hindering their ad growth is that advertising is an afterthought, a blip on the balance sheet. It’s still viewed by some as immaterial and potentially detrimental to the cash cows — an ad is an impediment if it distracts a consumer from the “buy” button or mucks up a beautiful mobile app.” We suppose in a way we should be grateful that our user data is safe from advertisers, but what do you guys think?
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