Apple has been granted a patent for a new viral advertising management system that can track ads or media content as it is shared via different methods, such as email, texts and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The patent also says that it can store users' names, addresses, and age in a database.This does not mean that Apple is going to launch a viral advertising product — the company has a long history of focusing on devices and apps, not advertising. Nor does it mean that Apple is going to start tracking your consumption of social media.But it is interesting that Apple is even thinking about cross-platform viral ad tracking, given the company's recent renewed interest in evolving its advertising business.Apple is launching an ad blocker available for its latest update to the Safari web browser, which will let iPhone and iPad users block ads from web publishers.Apple recently has expanded iAd, its mobile advertising system, to more countries, and Apple now offers programmatic ad buying inside iAd.Apple's new viral ad tracking method — in theory — could be used in iAd. The system proposes to gather data about people who share ads or content with their friends from Apple