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LinkedIn to Stop Using IDFA When Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Changes Occur With Release of iOS 14.5

Apple will begin enforcing its App Tracking Transparency changes following the release of iOS 14.5. Once the 14.5 update has been released, all apps that access an iPhone’s ad identifier (IDFA) will be required to ask a user’s permission before tracking is allowed.

LinkedIn today announced that as of iOS 14.5 it will no longer be accessing the IDFA, so LinkedIn users will not be presented with an ad tracking permission popup.

In a post on its Marketing Solutions blog, LinkedIn announced that it won’t use the IDFA “for now.” It says the change will result in “limited impact” to any campaign performance for advertisers.

We’ve always kept ourselves to a higher standard by putting our members first. And we work hard daily to provide reliable and resilient solutions for our customers that evolve with the industry’s requirements, while providing a trusted, quality experience for our members. One of the bigger industry shifts is Apple’s upcoming changes to Identifier for Advertising (IDFA), which companies use for tracking and ad targeting.

We want to share an update on our plans and guidance to help you prepare for these changes. We have decided to stop our iOS apps’ collection of IDFA data for now. Although this change affects the LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN), Conversion Tracking and Matched Audiences, we expect limited impact to your campaign performance, and don’t foresee major changes required for your campaign set-up.

LinkedIn says it will “regularly reevaluate” the usage of the advertising identifier. However, the company says it is committed to “privacy-by-design principles” to “provide a trusted experience” for LinkedIn users.

LinkedIn’s message about dropping the IDFA and what it says will be a limited impact on the performance of its advertising campaigns differs from other social networking sites, specifically Facebook. Facebook has said that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency changes will have a major impact on its Facebook advertising tools.

Facebook and some other firms that make money from advertising have said they’re concerned that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency changes as they don’t believe that users will consent to being tracked across apps for ad personalization purposes.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.