Apple’s app tracking transparency is now live with iOS 14.5: How does it work, and should you use it?

The new feature allows apps to display a pop-up notification that explains what data the app wants to collect, and what it proposes to do with it. But there’s another change that’s arguably less fun but much more significant for many users: the introduction of “app tracking transparency”. As Apple has explained, the app tracking transparency feature is a new “application programming interface”, or API — a suite of programming commands used by developers to interact with the operating system. Apple’s app tracking transparency feature is now live with iOS 14.5. The most recent additions to Apple’s App Store guidelines explicitly tells developers: You must receive explicit permission from users via the App Tracking Transparency APIs to track their activity.