Privacy issues continued to become more salient for mobile marketers this year. One major change came with the introduction of Apple’s iOS 13 in September 2019. iPhone users can now see which companies track their location data and can choose whether to accept tracking once, when the app is in use, always or never. These options have led to a drastic reduction (up to 80%) of background data— which is data from apps that always track location—collected on iOS devices, according to Location Sciences, a location data verification provider.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) also looms, with marketers needing to comply with its privacy restrictions by January 1, 2020. Upon a consumer's demand, any company operating in California must show what personal data is being collected on that individual. Users can opt out of data tracking if they don’t want their information to be kept, shared or sold. Many mobile publishers and data companies have been working in 2019 to prepare for CCPA.
The challenges of privacy and meeting the opportunities of 5G will continue to be the big stories for mobile in 2020. As 5G networks shift from being rudimentary to covering a decent part of the country—and with many more people buying 5G phones—it’s likely that marketers and developers will start taking advantage of the possibilities opened up by 5G.
We expect more mobile AR, remote gaming and interactive video to come, as publishers can take advantage of cloud computing, low latency and higher throughput rates to deliver new forms of media and advertising. Although 2019 was the symbolic beginning of the 5G era, 2020 will have the first stirrings of the 5G services and media revolution.