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Apple makes opting out of targeted iAds easy
With iOS 4 in the wild, and with news that the iPhone 4 will begin its deliveries tomorrow, iAds are about to become part of the shiny white elitist experience. If you haven't heard of iAds, they're the equivalent of Google's AdMob service: it's the next-generation of smartphone advertising, basically. Instead of being popped out of your app and into a Web browser, you're shown full-screen video and interactive ads.
Just like every other advanced ad-serving system, iAds are also targeted. Play a golf game, and you'll get golf ads; search for local fast-food joints and you'll get food ads -- that kind of thing. The good news is, like Google and Yahoo, you can opt-out of the Apple iAd targeting by simply visiting http://oo.apple.com on your iOS 4 device. Ads will still be displayed of course -- they just won't be targeted. I'm still not sure whether I prefer my ads to be anonymous, or creepily well-targeted...
The targeting opt-out is great, but as All Things Digital points out, you can't opt out of the location tracking feature that's present in iOS 4. Now, I don't own an iOS 4 device, but surely you can turn off GPS? Surely the user has control over whether his location is exposed...?
Also, another thing: iAds claim to display 'full-screen video' and feature 'interactive ad content'. I'm not trolling here, but how does the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch do that without Flash? Ghetto QuickTime movies or something?
Comments
21
Subscribe to commentslassiJun 22nd 2010 8:12AM
would you also turn off the cellular radio? probably not if you wanted to use it as a phone too and cellid is plenty enough for ads targeting and such. which is more than what they would be allowed to snoop on just for fun than what a cellular operator can get away with.
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 8:22AM
Wouldn't the cellular operator have to expose the phone's location in that case? Like... AT&T would have to feed back the phone's location to Apple's iAd department?
lassiJun 22nd 2010 8:42AM
no, apple wouldn't need to be in cahoots with the cellular operator.
if you got some right kind of nokia and get the j2me version of google maps you can observe the magic.
however, it needs a big databse of those cellid placings which is easiest to get if you're in cahoots with the operator(s). apple(or anyone with a product like theirs) could use those who keep the gps on as data collectors though to get the positions of the rest with just the cellid's. i'm pretty sure that google streetview cars collected this kind of information too(if they didn't they were pretty stupid as that would have been legal..).
there at least were some open projects as well for gathering tower cellid's for placement purposes.
however.. apple is in cahoots with at&t and many others.
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 8:46AM
Ahhh, the ID of the cellular TRANSMITTER! Sorry, I was thinking from the perspective of the phone :)
Yeah, every base station will have a unique ID, which ties a phone down to a fairly small radius...
Just like a post/zip code! Ugh.
AdamJun 22nd 2010 8:19AM
iAds uses HTML5, CSS, and Javascript to provide the described interactivity and video. No Flash necessary.
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 8:21AM
Oh, that's pretty cool!
216Jun 22nd 2010 8:22AM
Hmm could you repost this in the fall once the iPad iOS4 update comes out? I'm sure I'll forget about this come September
YuriyJun 22nd 2010 8:33AM
HTML5/CSS3/KavaScript Are capable of creating Flash equivalent content, and HTML5 is what iPhone is all about.
DarylJun 22nd 2010 8:31AM
Updated 3GS to iOS4 this morning, installed iBooks, working fine all day. Tried to opt out at http://oo.apple.com and continually get message that unsuccessful as device not running iOS4
D
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 8:41AM
Doh -- maybe it actually checks the device itself, rather than the OS...
That'd be pretty lame, especially if iOS4 is being 'officially' rolled out to older devices.
Richard FrischJun 22nd 2010 9:42AM
Fails for me http://twitpic.com/1yz82r
JasonJun 22nd 2010 10:13AM
If I'm going to be receiving ads, I would rather they be targetted and relevant to my buying interests. None of my browsing habits are private anyways, and if the ads are geographically aware, even better. However, adds cannot appear in an app I paid for, which includes the "out-of-the box" apps that come with the device. That's just too much.
Godfather5800Jun 22nd 2010 11:30AM
"Also, another thing: iAds claim to display 'full-screen video' and feature 'interactive ad content'. I'm not trolling here, but how does the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch do that without Flash? Ghetto QuickTime movies or something?"
Really? Ever heard of HTML5?
MadduxJun 22nd 2010 12:03PM
I feel like Download Squad sometimes doesn't do any research at all. And I'm no anti-flash apologist, but does the author honestly think that flash is the only way to provide video and interactivity on the web?
Are you new to the internet?
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 5:09PM
I have heard of HTML5!
I haven't, however, seen any great examples of interactive full-screen HTML5 stuff.
PonTelonJun 22nd 2010 10:41PM
Apple's announcements all said it was html5. And they have shown interactive content with html5 on their Safari page.
Seems a little strange to not have checked the official word on iAds when doing an article on it... All well. :)
Sebastian AnthonyJun 23rd 2010 5:57AM
I did a few searches, but only came up with a lot of other blogs, and that iAd SDK thing (that I linked to in the post).
I missed the keynote unfortunately (and you'll notice that I don't normally write Apple-centric news -- that's usually Jay).
semutaJun 22nd 2010 1:57PM
Congrats on the misleading article title that made me click on a story that I otherwise would not have. Well played.
Sebastian AnthonyJun 22nd 2010 5:07PM
Er... the title is basically the entire story. Sorry if you feel misled...
semutaJun 22nd 2010 5:22PM
Something more along the lines of "Apple makes opting out of the targeting aspect of its new iAds easy" is much more accurate. As I understand it, you cannot opt out of iAds itself, thus making opting out far from available or easy. Hence my questioning of the title.