We’re in Violent Agreement with Apple about Mobile Analytics

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iPad

In a fiery interview yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs talked about being “pissed off” at free mobile analytics provider Flurry. Until then, we didn’t quite understand why Apple made such sweeping changes to their mobile developer’s Terms of Service. With the real reason out in the open, it turns out that Webtrends and Apple are in violent agreement about mobile analytics, data ownership, and user privacy.

Flurry Scoops the iPad with Its Clients’ Data
When Flurry published data from its app clients about an unidentified device, rumored to be a new iPhone or tablet being used on the Apple campus, they attracted the attention and ire of Apple. At the time, the iPad was still unannounced and Apple wanted to keep the existence of their new device secret until they were ready for Jobs’ “big reveal.”

At the heart of the issue are two important themes: data ownership for brands and control of privacy for consumers.

Data Ownership

“But [developers] can’t send [device info] to an analytics company that’s going to sell it to everyone and publish it.” -Steve Jobs.

Many of the free analytics solutions, including Flurry and Google Analytics, assume ownership of the data collected from your apps or web sites in trade for analytics. They can do with that data whatever they want, such as publish it on their blog or snoop around in unmarked vans collecting your wifi info.

This is what every brand, publisher, or app developer should fear when their data is used to serve the interests of another business. Webtrends provides data for the owners of the apps. We don’t use the data for any other commercial purposes. All Webtrends clients maintain control and ownership of their data. Protecting this information is critical to us and to the brands we serve.

Control of Privacy

“There’s no excuse for [Flurry] to not to ask whether it’s appropriate to send that personal private data to an analytics firm, which [the developers] weren’t doing.”  -Steve Jobs

Apple wanted to keep their iPad prototype private, but unintentionally sent data to Flurry while testing third-party apps. This would’ve never happened if they’d tested their supposedly new devices with apps using Webtrends Mobile Analytics.

settings-opt-out

Apple prototype testers — like all users — would’ve been able to opt-out of analytics on their prototype devices. Which is what ended up “pissing off” Apple in the first place. Webtrends provides the ability for app publishers to allow users to opt-out of measurement.

Own Your Data, Respect Privacy, Support Developers
Applications using Webtrends Mobile Analytics continue to be approved. We’re looking forward to more conversations with Apple to ensure that users’ privacy is respected while our clients’ investments and the Apple ecosystem continue to thrive.

  • http://Website John Cole

    1 – This post makes an unfair statement about Google Analytics by omission of the fact that Google provides the option for site owners to “let Google use their analytics data” OR NOT (2nd line of “Data Ownership” paragraph).

    2 – Personally, I think it is only Apple’s fault if they were allowing model specific information to be sent via analytics which they did not wish to be sent. They are in control of the software for their new prototypes, and as such…it is their responsibility to emulate an older device if that is how they wish for it to be detected.

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  • http://thelostagency.wordpress.com/ David

    I thought it was really dependent on what analytics platform the developers were using not if they are using webtrends?

    Do wonder outside the self-promotion of the power of their mobile analytics platform why they would compromise the integrity of their analytics platform?

  • Eric Rickson

    Sven, Great questions. I would love to move this conversation over to our Developer network to connect you with the answers. You can follow this link to create a post http://developer.webtrends.com/post!input.jspa?containerType=14&container=2010

    You do need to be registered to post, but that is a very quick process. The form can be found at http://developer.webtrends.com/create-account.jspa

  • Sven

    By opt-out function I’m assuming one of these.

    -(void) disableEventTracking;
    -(void) shutdownEventTracking;

    If one of these are the opt-out functions you mention, should they be called on app startup in the WTAppDelegate as well as on a custom Settings screen?

    Can you point me to a documentation on what these functions actually do and/or how to use them properly?

    I’m curious to know if they are “durable” calls that persist past an application session or not?Also, is something like an isEventTrackingDisabled function?

  • Eric Rickson

    Sven, You just need to add an option to the settings screen in your app that calls the opt-out function in our SDK. You can find out more about and download our SDKs on our Developer site. http://developer.webtrends.com/docs/DOC-1201

  • Sven

    Where will (or under what conditions) will I find the “Send Usage Statistics” option in settings?