iPhone owners are making use of iOS 13's location privacy features
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Apple introduced new privacy controls in iOS 13, one of those being a popup that informs you if apps are secretly tracking your movements, giving the user a chance to opt-out.
It seems that people are using this as an opportunity to do just that.
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The effect has been quite pronounced on companies that collect data. According to Speaking to DigiDay, Location Services, a company that handles this sort of data, seven out of 10 iPhone users downloaded iOS 13 in the first six weeks after launch, and of those, 80% turned off all background location tracking.
"People have decided to stop their phones' sharing location data at a universal level," said Jason Smith, chief business officer at Location Sciences.
And the landscape has shifted very quickly.
According to Benoit Grouchko, CEO and co-founder of performance marketing company Teemo, the opt-in rates for users sharing data from apps running in the background was close to 100% just three years ago.
Now it stands at 50%.
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If you'd like to do a full audit of apps that are tracking you, as opposed to waiting for iOS 13 to throw up a popup, you can take control over this manually. Fire up the Settings and go Privacy > Locations Services. Assuming Locations Services is enabled, you will get a list of apps that use your locations data -- any in there that surprise you? -- and you can click on the various apps to change its settings.
More details of the settings, along with other factors to consider, can be found here.
What are your thoughts on apps tracking you? Let me know in the comments section below.