Facebook has published full-page advertisements in leading US dailies like The Washington Post, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, criticising Apple’s upcoming iOS privacy changes.
The full-page ads carried the headline “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.” The text attacks the upcoming changes to Apple’s iOS 14 operating system that is expected to curb the ability of companies like Facebook to gather data about users and target ads at them, Bloomberg News reported.
The newspaper ads are the latest in what has become a vicious public battle between two of the world’s most valuable companies.
Apple CEO Tim Cook shot back on 18 December, asserting that “Facebook can continue to track users across apps and websites as before. App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 will just require that they ask for your permission first.”
Explained: Facebook v Apple Privacy Battle Over Tracking iOS Users
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What Does Apple’s Privacy Policy Do?
Apple launched new App Store Privacy labels this week, shining a light on how iOS apps use your data. Notably, the privacy label on Facebook’s iOS app expands across several pages, listing all the data that can be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies, The Verge reported.
Apple defended its iOS updates, saying it was “standing up” for people who use its devices. “Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites – and they should have the choice to allow that or not,” Bloomberg quoted an Apple spokeswoman as stating.
“App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice,” she added.
As per the new updates, developers will need to ask iOS 14 users for permission to gather data and track them across mobile apps and websites on an iPhone and iPad soon.
According to The Verge report, these changes will impact Facebook’s ad business, and in particular its ad network for developers and businesses, as end users are more likely to opt out of tracking prompts.
Why Is Facebook Publishing Ads Against Apple?
According to Bloomberg, Facebook previously told investors that Apple’s changes, scheduled to go live early next year, will lead to significant headwinds because most of its advertisers are small businesses.
“While limiting how personalised ads can be used does impact larger companies like us, these changes will be devastating to small businesses,” Facebook said.
Framing Apple’s privacy policy as detrimental to the interests of small businesses, Facebook ad goes on to state, “Without personalised ads, Facebook data shows that the average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60 percent in their sales for every Dollar they spend.”
What Do Apple & CEO Tim Cook Have to Say?
In a direct response to Facebook’s attacks on Apple over its privacy policy, CEO Tim Cook tweeted that while Facebook can continue to track users as before, the new update “will just require that they ask for your permission first.”
He added that Apple believes “users should have the choice over the data that is being collected about them and how it’s used.”
Apple has pushed back, accusing Facebook in November of showing a “disregard for user privacy.” The company defended its ad tracking changes, pointing to recent comments from two of its top executives.
Its head of privacy, Jane Horvath, recently said Apple made the change “because we share your concerns about users being tracked without their consent and the bundling and reselling of data by advertising networks and data brokers.”
Bloomberg reports that Horvath, in a public letter, also criticised Facebook for its approach.
“Facebook executives have made clear their intent is to collect as much data as possible across both first and third-party products to develop and monetise detailed profiles of their users, and this disregard for user privacy continues to expand to include more of their products,” she wrote.
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