A lesser-known new feature in iOS 6: It's tracking you everywhere
L33tdawg: We already covered this and the steps needed to turn it off in Want Better Battery Life in iOS 6? Turn off tracking!
Apple has enabled user tracking of its customers once again, with the recently released iOS 6 enabling advertisers to see which apps users have run, and which adverts they've seen – all for the benefit of the users, of course.
The feature wasn't highlighted by Apple at the launch of iOS 6, as Business Insider points out in its detailed rundown, but the new tracking number is important as it enables advertisers to target users, and provides decent enough obfuscation to make switching it off really quite difficult, though those making use of it would question why one would want to turn it off anyway.
The IFA, or Identification For Advertisers, is a random number generated once by the iOS device which is used to uniquely identify that device between applications. The number is available to apps which can send it to their advertising service of choice to pull down new adverts, perhaps based on previous usage of viewing, without sharing the identity of the user or their equipment.
