Is Apple’s New Mail Privacy Protection a Bad Idea?

With iOS 15 close to being fully rolled out, a lot of buzz is being generated around the numerous security features that Apple is adding to its smartphones. One security feature that is particularly being discussed quite a bit has to do with privacy protection in the Mail app. Basically, a lot of companies that send emails to users tend to be able to access quite a bit of data that can tell them if a user opened the email, how many times they opened the email, whether or not they sent the email to other people among various other forms of data.

The latest version of iOS is going to make it so that users will be able to control whether or not they want to give this data up to the email senders. This definitely seems like a positive move on the outset, but some major players in the industry are criticizing this as a bit of an overcorrection. Businesses need this kind of data in order to improve their revenue streams and to figure out what their users actually like, and the fact that Apple is going to make the acquisition of this data so difficult for them could prove to have negative consequences in the long run.

How Apple’s mail changes work - effectively it will report 100% open rates. A huge pain for a lot of business that aren’t violating anyone’s privacy. pic.twitter.com/165Yu9mAeF

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) June 8, 2021

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that other people in the industry are countering this argument by saying that if users want a profile built on their data, they can still opt in. Giving users the option to control how and when their data is used is definitely a good step in the right direction, and Apple should be commended for taking the side of its loyal customers rather than supporting privacy violators who don’t care about consumer privacy as much as they ideally should.

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