An analogue of IDFA — CAID has been launched in China. Because of him, Apple may lose the Chinese market
Last week, China began testing the CAID identifier — the local equivalent of IDFA, which allows you to bypass Apple‘s new privacy policy. It was developed with the support of the government by the Chinese Advertising Association (CAA), which includes the largest technology companies in the country. Marketing expert Eric Seufert (Eric Benjamin Seufert) told in detail what threatens Apple with the appearance of such a tool. We have chosen the main thing from the material.
What is CAID?
As Seifert explained, CAID is essentially a crowdsourced permanent identifier that works on the basis of digital fingerprint tracking. In other words, the CAA has created something like a database consisting of such IP-indexed fingerprints. You need to pay for access to the “database”, but in return developers and marketers can find out how people use certain applications.
The problem is that the IP addresses of smartphones are constantly changing. This means that it is not easy to determine the right user by “fingerprints” based on IP. But the CAA decided that if a sufficient number of parameters were recorded in the “fingerprint” for the selected smartphone, and a lot of applications were accessed from this smartphone in a short period of time, the user would be identified even if the IP address changed. Because unlike the IP address, some of the parameters of the smartphone are relatively constant.
However, such an identifier will be effective only with the joint efforts of a number of large companies. According to Seifert, in Europe they will not do this, but in China they will easily. According to unconfirmed reports, a number of Chinese technology giants are already participating in CAID testing. Among them are ByteDance, Tencent and Baidu.
Apple’s Dilemma
The development of CAID has put Apple in a difficult position. In the near future, the company will launch a new privacy policy that will allow all users to block IDFA. Instead of an advertising identifier, Apple offers developers and marketers to use only two tools: the App Tracking Transparency framework (ATT) and SKAdNetwork. While tracking digital fingerprints is directly prohibited by the company’s rules. This means that CAID should also be banned by Apple.
That’s just by banning CAID, the “apple” company may lose the Chinese market. This is despite the fact that it is the second largest for it after the United States.
Previously, Apple has repeatedly made concessions in relation to Chinese developers. For example, she approved other guidelines for publishing apps from China in the App Store. Therefore, some experts believe that the company will not take drastic measures against CAID.
Nevertheless, Seifert believes that Apple will not make concessions for CAID even despite the threat of market loss. He explained this for three reasons:
1. Neutrality with Western advertising platforms
According to Seifert, a kind of mutual neutrality has now been established between Apple and advertising platforms. Facebook, in particular, turns a blind eye to the lack of transparency in the data that is transmitted between Facebook and advertisers, while Facebook itself, apparently, is ready to comply with the new privacy policy.
However, if Chinese companies can circumvent the rules that are mandatory for everyone else, then Facebook will also be tempted to break the rules.
Seifert noted that Apple did not just ban IDFA, but offered a somewhat vague privacy policy. This policy may become even more vague if Apple applies it inconsistently and adjusts it to the specifics of different regions. In this case, large advertising platforms will become more active in looking for workarounds for using user data that Apple will not even be able to track.
2. Possible dissatisfaction with the American authorities
In theory, any company can start using CAID if there are enough users in its region (and if CAID is supported there). But don’t forget that CAID works on Chinese servers, and the Chinese government can see user data if desired. This is unlikely to suit the US authorities, who have recently been actively opposing certain applications from China, since they allegedly threaten the national security of the States. As a result, Apple risks losing its position in the American market.
3. Respect for human rights
According to Seifert, Apple’s initiative to ban IDFA and create a new privacy standard arose solely from the company’s selfish goals. In addition, it can further harm the security of users.
According to the expert, using IDFA is really unethical, but the ID could always be disabled. Whereas, due to Apple’s policy, new tools may appear that work based on IP (the same CAID) and that can no longer be turned off so easily. This can become a big problem from the point of view of human rights. Support for such technologies can also damage Apple’s reputation.
Apple’s reaction
Apple has already commented on the appearance of CAID. According to Bloomberg, the company is not going to allow Chinese developers to use this identifier.
“The App Store rules apply equally to developers around the world,” the US tech giant said in a statement. “We are convinced that before tracking user data, you should ask for permission. Apps that ignore this will be deleted.”
At least three developers are now known to have to disable CAID in their apps within 14 days, or Apple will delete their accounts in the App Store.
