Apple To Delay Privacy Change Threatening Facebook, Mobile Ad Market

Apple said on Thursday that it will delay until early next year changes to its privacy policy that could reduce ad sales by Facebook and other companies targeting users on iPhones and iPads. From a report: The delay could benefit Facebook, which last week said the changes to the iOS 14 operating system would render one of its mobile advertising tools "so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it." Apple announced new privacy rules in June that were slated to take effect with the launch of its iOS 14 operating system this fall. Among them is a new requirement that advertisers who employ an Apple-provided tracking identifier, or other tools that have a similar function, must now show a pop-up notification asking for tracking permission. Facebook said last week it would quit using the tool that requires a prompt in its own apps but did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Apple said Thursday that developers will still have the option to use the prompt when iOS 14 arrives.

fun fact

[gruumine]

don't even use Facebook anymore so don't care. :)

Re:fun fact

[saloomy]

You should, because Facebook has a profile on you anyway. They tie you back to your friends because Facebook asks your friends for their contact info, and the correlate. You are being tracked by them on any website you visit that has a "share with Facebook" icon, because that icon lives in Facebook's servers, and the cookies it generates on your visit to "iconimages.facebook.com" are then used to follow you to every other website you visit that has one of those icons. Those cookies are everywhere, on every web server you visit (up to hundreds) on every page you load. This same tech tracks you across Apps, using the IDFA tag sent to those servers from your iPhone when you use Apps.

I wish the browsers would only respect cookies from the web server that the user navigated to.

Re:

[gruumine]

hmm, that sucks, did not know about that. The good news is that I have adblockers on my computer/laptop. So even if they are tracking me, they can't show me those stupid ads.

Re:

[WankerWeasel]

Facebook still has a profile on you and still tracks your activity across millions of websites that institute their tracking pixel and other technology.

It's a catch-22

[TeddyRick]

If they don't let Facebook collect data Apple gets to say they care about security but FB says that will hurt ad revenue and Apple's 30% cut will go down. I suspect they will find a way to maximize profit, say they are maximizing security but in the end.. Cook and Zuck win.. average Joe loses.

Re:

[saloomy]

No, Apple doesn't get a cut of FB's ad revenue. Either with or without IDFA.

Re:

[TeddyRick]

I thought any purchase made in the app would give apple 30%.. so if I run ads for my small business and am using the app when I post the add and get billed won't Apple get a cut? Or is advertising only possible via the web?

Re:It's a catch-22

[AmiMoJo]

It's because Apple is facing investigations over its monopoly practices, so is waiting to see how those turn out before destroying a large chunk of another company's as revenue.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

It's because Apple is facing investigations over its monopoly practices, so is waiting to see how those turn out before destroying a large chunk of another company's as revenue.

Not likely. It's likely they had some pushback from smaller developers - the ones who are more likely going to be affected by this because their app is ad supported. Having those people go bankrupt benefits no one so they get a few more months to make the necessary arrangements.

None of the monopoly investigations would affect this. I

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The lawsuit over Fortnight probably factors in.

Re:

[SkonkersBeDonkers]

Politicians don't want to lose the ability to micro-target advertising. It's the perfect machine for corruption because they can target their messages exactly to audiences and even given contradictory messages when required and no one knows about it.

Re:

[jamesL70]

For those that care and know enough to find it in the iOS settings, doesn't the "Limit Ad Tracking" option accomplish the same thing as this new feature? I suppose most Facebook and iPhone users have no idea about that setting.

Re:

[saloomy]

I think these measures went further, and asked users specifically if they wanted to transmit an IDFA to the Apps. iOS currently lets you reset yours, but unless allowed to, this would make it like you reset it upon each usage, thereby denying them the ability to profile you.