Apple's iPhone users in the case of safety and privacy have always enjoyed more privilege. The feature ‘Ask App not to Track" is a part of that privilege. In 2021 the new feature came in market. The privacy setting called App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, that shows you, an iPhone user, a popup asking if you want to “Allow this app to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites?” You have two options: “Ask app not to track” and “Allow.” The vast majority of people pick the former, which blocks apps from collecting certain data. Behind the scenes, the change caused a radical shift in the tech landscape.

How this helped TikTok in the war of Social media dominance against, Meta

According to Gizmodo, "Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said that one setting alone cost the company an estimated $10 billion. Its stock value has plunged 70% this year. But ATT had another side effect, one that got far less attention than Meta’s troubles. Apple’s iPhone privacy setting gave TikTok a significant leg up in its fight for social media dominance."

“As Meta struggled to maintain performance, TikTok presented a buyer’s market for advertisers where demand was low and supply was high,” said John Donahue, co-founder of programmatic ad consulting firm Up & to the Right, who’s worked with major advertisers like Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, and Linksys. “Timing is everything in life, and TikTok couldn’t have timed it better.”

Mobile Dev Memom said, "TikTok is a convenient scapegoat for many of the current revenue headwinds confronting social media platforms, but it likely is experiencing those same headwinds. TikTok operates the same “hub-and-spoke” structure of digital advertising that both Meta and Snap utilize, which means Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy has created friction for it as well."

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