It’s been almost a month since iOS10 was released, with its more stringent privacy settings – where users can opt out of the ID for Advertisers (IDFA). When the Limit Ad Tracking setting is enabled, the IDFA is blank.

If people were more interested in reducing the number of retargeted ads, and if they were aware of the effects of the Limit Ad Tracking settings, we would expect a steadily rising trend throughout the last month as adoption of iOS 10 rises and people become aware of the changes. So far, there’s no evidence of an upward trend – the global rates are stagnant, at around 18 %.

So what’s happened, globally?

After the jump, you’ll find all of the rates, by country.

In North America, US LAT rates rise to 20 %

The US is one of the few places where the Limit Ad Tracking rates have consistently risen throughout the month. Around the launch of iOS 10, different measurements implied that circa 16 - 18 % of iOS users in the United States had opted out of ad tracking. As of October 4th, the day this dataset was retrieved, that number had steadily risen to 20 %.

Country	% of iOS users who have opted out
Bahamas	18.77%
Barbados	22.98%
Belize	21.87%
Bermuda	30.28%
Canada	14.44%
Costa Rica	11.45%
Dominican Republic	10.91%
El Salvador	10.17%
Guadeloupe	25.62%
Guatemala	10.23%
Haiti	28.35%
Honduras	11.79%
Jamaica	13.16%
Martinique	26.42%
Mexico	7.88%
Nicaragua	13.87%
Panama	10.79%
Puerto Rico	13.73%
Trinidad and Tobago	13.10%
United States of America	20.46%

Germans and Scandinavians top the list among Europeans

In Europe, the rates are frequently above the global average, especially in Eastern Europe.

The countries leading the list are typically in Northern Europe, such as Germany (19 %) or the Netherlands (22 %). Writing this out of Berlin, this is not entirely surprising. The Germans have high standards for privacy protection (*Datenschutz*), and an above-average awareness of the types of data that is being collected - in addition to some of the world’s most stringent privacy protection laws. As adjust’s platform is engineered and hosted in Germany, we’re keenly familiar with the type of protections these laws require.

Particularly low are the rates in Turkey.

Country	% of iOS users who have opted out
Albania	14.22%
Austria	17.78%
Belarus	12.70%
Belgium	16.33%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	12.68%
Bulgaria	10.89%
Croatia	13.30%
Cyprus	15.19%
Czech Republic	18.75%
Denmark	16.89%
Estonia	15.77%
Finland	17.33%
France	12.02%
Germany	19.33%
Greece	12.07%
Hungary	10.94%
Iceland	14.24%
Ireland	12.38%
Italy	13.69%
Latvia	14.91%
Lithuania	11.89%
Luxembourg	18.51%
Macedonia	11.34%
Malta	18.83%
Moldova	14.00%
Montenegro	16.93%
Netherlands	21.99%
Norway	12.37%
Poland	17.27%
Portugal	12.56%
Romania	9.78%
Russia	13.95%
Serbia	11.45%
Slovakia	16.40%
Slovenia	15.07%
Spain	12.91%
Sweden	12.55%
Switzerland	16.44%
Turkey	8.49%
Ukraine	12.38%
United Kingdom	16.52%

The Middle East, Israel and the Arab subcontinent

Country	% of iOS users who have opted out
Bahrain	10.87%
Iran	11.95%
Israel	14.07%
Jordan	11.14%
Kuwait	13.51%
Lebanon	11.62%
Oman	11.58%
Qatar	12.76%
Saudi Arabia	12.25%
UAE	11.57%
Yemen	22.78%

Users in Asia more open to ad tracking?

It’s among Asian countries that we find some of the world’s lowest rates of opt-outs, almost tied with Latin America. The lowest rates across the board are found among users in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Country	% of iOS users who have opted out
Afghanistan	14.74%
Armenia	10.79%
Azerbaijan	10.99%
Bangladesh	13.92%
Bhutan	26.56%
Brunei	16.15%
Cambodia	18.75%
China	11.04%
Georgia	12.47%
Hong Kong	17.32%
India	9.23%
Indonesia	7.16%
Iraq	10.48%
Japan	13.60%
Kazakhstan	11.07%
Kyrgyzstan	15.67%
Laos	14.77%
Macao	17.77%
Malaysia	9.42%
Maldives	13.75%
Mongolia	8.03%
Myanmar	11.48%
Nepal	11.10%
Pakistan	7.49%
Philippines	6.92%
Singapore	15.50%
South Korea	9.64%
Sri Lanka	9.21%
Taiwan	14.21%
Tajikistan	19.73%
Thailand	8.33%
Turkmenistan	25.68%
Uzbekistan	15.44%
Viet Nam	9.19%

South America on the lower end of the scale

Country	% of iOS users who have opted out
Argentina	9.02%
Bolivia	10.60%
Brazil	8.23%
Chile	9.01%
Colombia	9.10%
Ecuador	10.16%
French Guiana	32.14%
Guyana	23.27%
Paraguay	10.21%
Peru	9.43%
Suriname	25.14%
Uruguay	11.21%
Venezuela	8.95%

African countries represent the highest level of iOS Limit Ad Tracking

Country	% of iOS users who have opted out
Algeria	16.02%
Angola	14.77%
Benin	28.95%
Bolivia	20.50%
Botswana	29.41%
Burkina Faso	25.92%
Cameroon	18.62%
Congo	38.18%
Cote d’Ivoire	10.31%
Curacao	25.82%
DRC	19.49%
Egypt	10.22%
Ethiopia	19.71%
Gabon	26.53%
Gambia	22.22%
Ghana	10.33%
Guinea	22.22%
Kenya	13.32%
Libya	12.81%
Madagascar	23.33%
Mali	18.09%
Mauritania	30.09%
Mauritius	16.19%
Morocco	17.84%
Mozambique	19.60%
Namibia	20.94%
Nigeria	8.66%
Reunion	15.88%
Rwanda	36.36%
Senegal	14.38%
Sierra Leone	32.43%
Somalia	23.33%
South Africa	13.34%
Sudan	23.44%
Tanzania	15.13%
Togo	32.43%
Tunisia	15.44%
Zambia	25.50%
Zimbabwe	20.66%

What does this mean for you?

Limit Ad Tracking means that users don’t want to be retargeted and profiled for advertising purposes.

As we can see, it’s not evenly distributed across countries, and it’s additionally not evenly distributed among target audiences. Audiences that are more tech-savvy typically know about these settings to a greater degree, and are also more allergic to advertising in general. Some audiences will also have a high proportion of adblockers, which is complementary to Limit Ad Tracking.

It looks like the rates are higher in countries where more people are concerned about their privacy online - for example in the German-speaking area - but not necessarily in countries where smartphone penetration is higher, like in Sweden.

As a marketer, audiences that are very likely to enable Limit Ad Tracking can still be valuable. But you need to reach them in ways that are additionally aware of their privacy preferences.

Understand the “dark percentage” of Limit Ad Tracking

Just last week, we released Privacy Insights, including a new KPI into the adjust dashboard: the proportion of users that have enabled Limit Ad Tracking.

In our aggregated data, we measure the number of anonymous users in each segment. With this information, you’re able to understand more clearly - for your app - which audiences are more likely to opt out of ad tracking.

Maybe some campaigns or some publishers reach this audience to a higher degree? There’s no point scheduling retargeting campaigns toward a segment where a large proportion of the users have opted out.

If certain high-performing audiences are more likely to opt out of tracking, you can know which types of publishers can reach them - and which don’t.

The metrics are available to everyone using adjust.

Not using adjust yet, but still curious how to find out which of your audiences are most engaged, and which ones are more likely to enable LAT? Get in touch today for a demo.