What is this New button to reset the Advertising Identifier

settings - general - about - advertising - advertising identifier

Advertising Identifier reset There is a new button to reset the Advertising Identifier. OK, great ... so what's the Advertising Identifier? It all has to do with iPhone apps that include ads. App developers can potentially make a lot of money from ads in their apps, but the advertisers often seek to target a specific audience and will pay more if they have more of a sense of who is seeing their ads. About a year ago, this caused privacy concerns, and even inquiries from people like Congressman Waxman, because every iPhone has a unique number associated with it called the UDID. Apps were telling advertisers the UDID, and because the UDID is forever tied to a specific iPhone, there were some privacy concerns about being able to connect information with a specific person. To address this, Apple banned app developers from using the UDID, and starting in iOS 6.0, lets developers instead simply associate you with an Advertising Identifier. That number is not forever tied to your device, is random, and isn't associated with any personal information about yourself. It's similar to the cookies that many websites use so that they know that you have visited the site before but don't know your name (unless you give it to them). And just like you can turn off cookies in Safari on the iPhone and web browsers in your computer, in iOS 6 you can choose to turn off the Advertising Identifier... ...except that it's not even quite that simple. From what I understand, you can't actually tell your iPhone to turn off the Advertising Identifier, but you can tell your iPhone to "limit" it. Huh? According to an article by Laura Stampler of Business Insider: "Even if users take the time to limit tracking, their identifiers will still be sent to advertisers. The information, however, is flagged and advertisers should respect users' wishes." So that brings us to iOS 6.1. Now, in addition to choosing to limit the Advertising Identifier, whatever that means, you also have the option to reset your number. Presumably this means a fresh start on life ... or at least, on your relationship with advertisers. I have to admit that I don't get too worked up over this stuff. Some people are very concerned about privacy when it comes to advertisers, and I see where they are coming from. But frankly, I don't really mind seeing advertising targeted towards me. I don't have any interest in the musicals at a theater in South Dakota, but if someone wants to show me an ad for a Broadway show coming to the theater here in New Orleans, well that just might be relevant to me. Likewise, I don't mind when Amazon shows me ads based on my prior purchases becuase the ads tend to be for items that interest me. But maybe one day I'll decide that I want a do-over for iPhone app advertisers, and now there is a button to press for that. To use this new feature, go to the Settings app, then tap General, then tap About, and then tap Advertising. The new button is the one that says "Reset Advertising Identifier."