Two of the world’s biggest tech giants, Apple and Facebook, are fighting, so grab your popcorn: this war is about to get interesting. The newest iOS update that restricts app tracking without consent is wildly popular with the users. That’s not great news for Facebook’s ad revenue.
Apple and Facebook were never particularly fond of each other. Recently uncovered e-mails from a massive trial between Apple and Epic Games show that Steve Jobs called the social network “Fecebooks“. Yikes.
Back then, they were fighting about App Store policies. Then came the new Apple chief Tim Cook who made privacy one of his priorities. Obviously, that doesn’t sit that well with Mark Zuckerberg.
The newest iOS update means war between Apple and Facebook. The feature automatically turns off IDFA (identifier for advertisers). Consequently, apps can’t collect unnecessary data unless the users let them. Facebook has built its business on tracking everything its users do to target ads, but the newest statistics show that they’re in trouble. Worldwide, only 13 percent of Apple users allowed app tracking, while in the US, it’s only 5 percent.
Apple’s quest for privacy
We live in a world where, if you type something into a browser, you’ll see it everywhere for weeks. Most online companies need to invade our privacy to make profits, but Apple’s been going against the stream. “What makes us different is that Apple’s privacy engineers are not trying to find justifications to collect as much data as possible,” explained Apple Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, at the European Data Protection and Privacy Conference.
This effort is in line with Tim Cook’s belief that privacy is a fundamental human right and that currently, “our own information is being weaponized against us with military efficiency”. In his Keynote speech at the European Parliament, he also stressed that users should have the right to have personal data minimized; to know what data is collected on them; to access that data; and the right for that data to be kept securely. That speech took place in 2018, so the current war between Facebook and Apple was a long time coming. Besides, the iPhone maker was already consistently upgrading further privacy measures, such as turning Safari into a heavily privacy-focused browser.
Facebook’s quest for our data
Mark Zuckerberg’s social network became gigantic largely by collecting and monetizing its user data and despite the habitual privacy leaks. Now, he worries that the algorithms that tempt you to start shopping won’t be adequately fed. And if Facebook can’t target ads, businesses may want to take their advertising money elsewhere.
Facebook has been ready for war with Apple over the recent updates for a while now. The way they see it, it’s hurting the small businesses that already struggled during the pandemic. The company even ran full-page ads in major American newspapers blaming Apple for hurting small businesses that need to target their ads to find customers. At the same time, they’re persuading the users that sharing the data is, in fact, beneficial. It does keep the platform free after all.
Is what happened fair?
Apple’s decision to limit what other apps can track could possibly be about doing the right thing. However, Facebook doesn’t think so. The social network claims that those who are truly impacted are “your neighborhood coffee brewery, your friend who owns their own retail business, your cousin who started an event planning service, and the game developers who build the apps you use for free.” Right in the feels, but Cook disagrees.
“We know these things are flimsy arguments,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “I think that you can do digital advertising and make money from digital advertising without tracking people when they don’t know they’re being tracked,” he added.
… or is it all about the money?
If you’re a cynic – or perhaps just a realist – you probably find Apple’s reasoning hard to believe. Would they be risking feuds and lawsuits just because they claim privacy should be a human right? Who knows, maybe it does, but Facebook thinks there’s more to it.
According to Facebook, businesses that can’t track their users will have to turn to subscriptions. Since Apple Store takes a cut of such transactions, that should be very convenient. Moreover, Facebook claims that Apple’s own personalized ad platform doesn’t fall under the same rules. Zuckerberg’s network is not the only one fuming: a group of prominent German companies already filed an antitrust complaint, claiming that Apple’s move could mean a 60 percent decline in advertising revenue.
Should Apple play dirty, though, regulators would likely object. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president for the digital age who loves to regulate tech, says the iPhone maker has to be fair. “It can be competition if it is shown that Apple is not treating its own apps in the same way,” she told Reuters.
The war between Facebook and Apple had to happen
Whatever the real reason for the current drama, the issue at hand is worth fighting for. Politicians, futurists, and executives have been asking for a dramatic change in personal data policies for a while now.
To quote Kernel’s Bryan Johnson: “Once you predict someone’s value, that person no longer has value in society.” It might be time for us to stop sharing our digital identity for free without even reading the terms and conditions.
