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Other than the user manually resetting it, has anyone observed other things that will cause the ADID to be reset? OTA OS Upgrades? iTunes Restores?
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If you don't want to stop ad tracking altogether—you're getting ads anyway, might as well be relevant—you can navigate to those same screens and tap Reset advertising ID on Android or Reset Advertising Identifier on iOS to cycle your ad ID and essentially force advertisers to start a new profile on you.
For users who do know about the setting, this new feature could actually help provide more targeted advertising for each user over time. While many have touted the “reset” feature as a way to prevent users from continuing to see ads, resetting the ID will only wipe away any past contextual behavior they might have had.
We use iCloud to sync the identifier across your devices that are signed in to iCloud. To reset the identifier included in playback data sent to Apple on iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Podcasts > Reset Identifier. This will also reset the identifier for any paired watchOS devices.
When you clear your history, the identifier used by Apple News to report statistics to news publishers is reset. You can reset the identifier at any time by choosing News > Clear History > Reset Identifier. To learn more about the identifier, choose Help > About Apple News & Privacy while using the News app.
It is unlikely that all but a very small percentage of iOS users will reset using the Reset Advertising Identifier button. For users who do know about the setting, this new feature could actually help provide more targeted advertising for each user over time.
Apple’s Identifier for Advertising (IFA or IDFA) was introduced with the iOS 6 update, and replaced Unique Device Identifiers (UDID). With the iOS 6.1. update, users can reset the IDFA by navigating to the Advertising settings. The implications for this may seem somewhat dire for mobile advertisers.
The advertisingIdentifier is an alphanumeric string that’s unique to each device, and which you only use for advertising. Use this string for frequency capping, attribution, conversion events, estimating the number of unique users, advertising fraud detection, and debugging.
Apple’s Identifier for Advertising (IFA or IDFA) was introduced with the iOS 6 update, and replaced Unique Device Identifiers (UDID). With the iOS 6.1. update, users can reset the IDFA by navigating to the Advertising settings.
(effects on advertisingIdentifier and identifierForVendor, as tested on an iPhone 3GS with iOS 6.0.1 and iOS 6.1.3 and an iPhone 4S with iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 7.0.0)
"Reset All Settings" in iOS Settings app
No effect
"Erase All Content and Settings" in iOS Settings app
Resets both advertisingIdentifier and identifierForVendor.
Restoring a device via iTunes
Resets both advertisingIdentifier and identifierForVendor.
Deleting an app from the device
Resets identifierForVendor, if this was the last app with a specific Team ID.
Updating an app (automatically or via App Store)
No effect
Updating an app via TestFlight or Ad-Hoc
May reset the identifierForVendor, according to documentation.
Enabling/disabling "Limit Ad Tracking"
iOS 6.0.1: No effect
iOS 6.1.3: Resets the advertisingIdentifier.
System Update OTA (iOS 6.0.1 to iOS 6.1.3)
No effect
System Update OTA (iOS 6.1.3 to iOS 7.0.0)
Resets the identifierForVendor in some cases. (1)
System Update via iTunes (iOS 6.1.3 to iOS 7.0.0)
Resets the identifierForVendor in some cases. (1)
"Reset Advertising Identifier" in iOS Settings app
Resets the advertisingIdentifier. If some running (or suspended) apps already
requested a advertisingIdentifier, they will not be able to
retrieve the new one until they are stopped and relaunched.
Backup via iTunes
No effect
Restore of a Backup via iTunes (to the same device)
Restores the backed-up settings, including both advertisingIdentifier and
identifierForVendor. Note: If you delete multiple apps with some
Team ID before the restore, the identifierForVendor will never be
reset again until you reinstall all apps with that Team ID you had
installed and delete them again. This seems to be a bug.
Restore of a Backup via iTunes (to a different device)
Resets both advertisingIdentifier and identifierForVendor.
(1) As far as I understand, this should not happen with Apps in the App Store. It seems to be related to the number of components in the app's bundleID and the respective provisioning profile: iOS 7 App Release Notes regarding App Deployment
In my tests, the identifierForVendor in apps with 4 components did change (for versions with either developer or enterprise distribution provisioning profiles), but did not change for those with 3 components.
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Two cases:
Backups, OS upgrades, app re-install, or choosing “Limit Ad Tracking” won't reset the identifier.
AFAIK you could send the vendor ID and the advertising ID to the server, and when the user resets the advertising ID with “Reset Advertising Identifier”, you can match the new with the old one, because the vendor ID survives. No idea how Apple intends to prevent this.
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