Apple to Prevent iPhone App-Scanning With iOS 9: Report

Apple is said to be focusing on strengthening the user privacy with a change in its advertisement policy for third-party apps, claims a new report. With the change in policy, advertisers will be no longer able to access the data about which apps are installed on your iPhone or iPad.

According to Amir Efrati of The Information, Apple until now allowed apps such as Facebook and Twitter to draw details on data of other installed apps on the device to target ads. He gave an example of a user who has installed games including paid ones as well - advertisers may show ads on paid games that are not already installed on the device.

The Cupertino-based giant however seems determined to protect user privacy with its upcoming iOS 9 update, which is set to release this fall. Apple will reportedly prevent app developers from accessing data from other installed apps for ad targeting.

Efrati explains, "As part of its recent privacy push, Apple earlier this month said it would shut down an increasingly popular practice by companies like Twitter to scan people's iPhones and iPads to see which apps are installed. They used such data, which is akin to Web-browsing history, to target in-app advertisements to individuals."

Macrumors further point out that advertisers are exploiting an API in iOS called "canopenURL" to access the app download data. However, this is likely to change with iOS 9.

A report on Wednesday tipped another feature of iOS 9 that may allow users to temporarily delete apps to make space for the new software update installation. The feature appeared to be what Apple meant at WWDC when it said it had developed a way to ensure iOS updates would require less free storage.

Spotted in the first developer beta of iOS 9 when users tried to update to second beta that was released recently, the feature warned users they have 'insufficient space for download', and then recommends what could be called the intelligent deletion of apps. Once the software update installation is complete, the apps would automatically reinstall with no loss of user data.

Considering that the intelligent app deletion for software updates feature was in beta, there's no confirmation that the feature would make to the final build available to users later this fall.