Apple will finally release iOS 14.5 next week . The update will bring a number of improvements, including new tools for tracking and locating objects (AirTags), support for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X controllers, new Siri voices, and updates to the Music app. The new version also adds the ability to unlock your iPhone with an Apple Watch, so that facial recognition doesn't have to be a problem when the user is wearing a mask.
But the biggest and most controversial change coming to iOS 14.5 is the App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, feature. This feature has been much talked about since Apple introduced it. ATT will require apps to ask users for permission before tracking their activity for advertising purposes.
See also: Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature is coming this spring!
The introduction of this feature has sparked a storm of reactions among advertising companies, with Facebook saying that this move by Apple will negatively affect many companies that rely on advertising. In fact, in December, Facebook said that Apple was misleading customers and that the new policy was intended to increase the company's profits and not help protect privacy (although at some point, the platform's CEO seems to have changed his mind about the disastrous consequences of the feature).
Apple, for its part, claimed that iOS 14.5's ATT is very important and in line with the company's commitment to treating privacy as a human right.
See also: Tim Cook: Apple is not against digital advertising, it's just enhancing user privacy
Apple's software chief Craig Federighisaid last year that the new feature would ultimately prove to be good "even for people who are currently complaining about these moves," because there would be more control over data and apps.
Apple revealed the release date for iOS 14.5 in its announcement about its upcoming AirTag. There, it said that the AirTag requires iOS 14.5 to work and said it would be coming “starting next week”.
See also: “Spring loaded” event: See all the new products Apple introduced
The App Tracking Transparency feature was revealed in June 2020, at WWDC event , along with the rest of the iOS 14 features. But in September, shortly before the release of iOS 14, the company said it would give developers more time to adapt to the new changes and thus stated that the feature would finally come in early 2021.
Source: The Independent
