Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have different philosophies when it comes to mobile advertising, mainly because Google gets a lot more money from mobile ads than Apple does. As a result, Google is giving some developers a workaround to Apple's privacy protocols so they can keep selling mobile ads with their apps. As Re/code notes, in iOS 9, Apple is introducing a new feature called App Transport Security, or ATS, which is supposed to require iPhone app developers to use an advanced security protocol. The aim is to boost security of iOS, something Google thinks is a good idea.
However, Google thinks that not every app developer and mobile publisher will be able to work with Apple's new standards, at least not initially, which could mean that their mobile ads won't run. On Wednesday, Google gave publishers a guide on ATS and also published the five lines of code to disable Apple's encryption, offering them a "short-term fix" before they can meet Apple's enhanced new protocols, which Google is also pushing. Disabling the Apple protocol does not appear to violate Apple's rules, the report said.
Google later clarified that it was not trying to prioritize ads and ad revenue over security. "We wrote this because developers asked us about resources available to them for the upcoming iOS 9 release, and we wanted to outline some options. To be clear, developers should only consider disabling ATS if other approaches to comply with ATS standards are unsuccessful." Article