Apple Justifies Postponement of iOS 14 Feature Restricting App Monitoring, Lambastes Facebook
This year, groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch addressed Apple about delaying a feature that forces apps to receive explicit user consent before tracking them on iPhones. Apple, according to Bloomberg, responded with a fiery letter to Facebook, criticizing its business model.
Apple introduced the privacy-enhancing App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in iOS 14 in September but hasn't made it mandatory yet. The groups argued that the delay was unwise amidst the critical week leading up to and following the 2020 U.S. elections, when user data can be exploited to target political ads with personalized content.
In the letter, Apple's global head of privacy, Jane Horvath, slammed Facebook. She noted that user data can be collected without warning or consent, often by various companies to target advertisements or build user behavior models. Specifically, Horvath pointed out that Facebook continues to collect excessive data across first and third-party products, disregarding the user's privacy.
Facebook retorted that this isn't about privacy but rather Apple's anticompetitive methods, which critics claim on iOS 14 updates and payment methods. Amidst global scrutiny into tech giants’ influence in the digital advertising ecosystem, the Department of Justice antitrust division is looking into both Apple and Google.
This feud has already affected Facebook, with the iOS update potentially lowering publisher revenue through Audience Network by up to 50%. Facebook also had to strip down the version of Facebook Gaming available via the App Store due to Terms of Service restrictions, giving iOS users a subpar experience.
Enrichment Data:- The App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature requires apps to ask users for permission to track their activities across different apps, which has significantly impacted the advertising industry, especially companies like Facebook.- The German Federal Cartel Office has been investigating Apple's ATT feature for three years, raising concerns that it may violate antitrust rules by unfairly impacting the business models of companies that rely on data-driven advertising.- Facebook, in particular, has seen a significant impact from the ATT feature. While Facebook can still track user information within its own apps, it cannot track users across external applications if users have opted out. This limits Facebook's ability to serve targeted ads and collect data for demographic grouping, affecting its advertising strategies.
- Apple has been enhancing its commitment to user privacy by delaying the mandatory implementation of the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, originally introduced in iOS 14.
- The future of tech companies like Facebook, heavily reliant on user data for targeted advertising, could be significantly impacted by Apple's privacy-focused strategies.
- Amidst controversy, Apple's global head of privacy criticized Facebook for collecting excessive data, highlighting the importance of user privacy and explicit consent in the tech industry.
- In August, Apple's stance on privacy and data collection has once again put them at odds with major tech companies, such as Facebook, who argue that it's more about anticompetitive practices than protecting user privacy.
