A quick reality check on App Store privacy labels and ATT: the numbers are still huge (42matters)

Original article (source): 42matters - “Daily Apple Privacy Stats and App Tracking Transparency” (last updated Jul 4, 2026)

• https://42matters.com/daily-apple-privacy-stats-and-app-tracking-transparency

Summary

42matters maintains a regularly updated dashboard-style page that rolls up App Store privacy label declarations and a few ATT-adjacent indicators.

Even if you do not trust the exact counts as gospel, it’s a useful benchmark sanity-check when someone says “nobody tracks anymore” or “ATT killed everything”. The broad shape is: lots of apps still declare data collection, a meaningful minority still declare tracking, and plenty of product decisions still create privacy and support surface area.

A few of the headline numbers they show right now:

• Around 9 in 10 iOS apps declare that they collect some private data.
• Roughly 1 in 6 declare using at least one data type to track users.
• Background location and “data linked to you” remain very common declarations.

Why this is useful for app marketers

• Privacy is not just a policy line, it’s funnel + trust. Any permission prompt you add becomes conversion-sensitive.
• Teams often under-estimate how much “analytics plumbing” and “ad plumbing” leaks into support (battery, background activity, unexpected permissions).
• Your store listing is part of the relationship. Privacy labels set expectations, and mismatches get punished in reviews.

What to do with this (tiny win)

Do a 30-minute “privacy funnel” pass:

1. List every permission/prompt users see in the first session.
2. For each one, write the moment-of-need trigger (what user action makes it obviously necessary).
3. Compare your App Store privacy label wording to your onboarding copy, and fix one mismatch.

Read the original: https://42matters.com/daily-apple-privacy-stats-and-app-tracking-transparency