‘Sign in with Apple’ might not be silver bullet for privacy

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Sign in with Apple
iOS 13’s “Sign in with Apple" might not be a panacea for data tracking.
Photo: Alfred Ng

iOS 13’s “Sign in with Apple” is a privacy-centric method for signing into third-party apps and services, but an executive from a company specializing in collecting data about consumers predicts it won‘t cripple his business.

‘Sign in with Apple’ offers multiple, unique IDs

Apple’s new privacy feature, coming in iOS 13, prevents third-party apps and web services from tracking users via their logins. It creates private, disposable logins for every service or app. It can even create a random email that forwards to the user’s real email address for every account.

However, Kazuki Ota, founder and CTO of Arm Treasure Data told TechRepublic that he’s confident that his company’s system for tracking consumers will be able to work around “Sign in with Apple.” And he believes the same is true for other large enterprises.

“With that type of solution, our match rate will be decreasing for sure,” Ota admitted, but that’s not the whole story. “The effectiveness of this Apple move was more about how the email address will be used. That prevents certain actions, but I think the effectiveness, personally, will be limited.”

He goes on to point out that large companies are already accustomed to tracking customers who use multiple email addresses. Many enterprises that’ve been in business for decades have numerous sub-brands, and customers who’ve created separate accounts with each of these. Combining these into one profile of the user is something they have to deal with already.

A couple of caveats

While Ota is certainly an expert in his field, remember that “Sign in with Apple” hasn’t been implemented yet. He has no direct experience yet trying to thwart it.

Also, Arm Treasure Data’s business model is tracking customers without their knowledge. A major executive from this company is not going to give an interview stating “Oh yeah, we’re doomed. I have my resume out already.” No matter what the situation is, part of his job is to be optimistic about his company’s prospects.

 

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