Tech giants at loggerheads is nothing new, but Facebook and Apple’s simmering tensions have burst out again, and it’s relating to Apple’s changes to its iOS software’s privacy workings – and specifically making companies ask users’ permission to gather their data and track them across apps and websites.
For example, to serve personalised adverts. Facebook, as you might imagine, is not happy with the changes, and now it has taken out newspaper ads to say so. “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere,” is the line, focusing on the small to medium businesses who use Facebook’s advertising tools. “Without personalized ads, Facebook data shows that the average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spend,” claimed the ad.
Apple has responded tartly: “We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. 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.”
Facebook appears to have the bit between its teeth though: it is also now swinging behind Fortnite publisher Epic Games’s lawsuit against Apple over its App Store policies, bringing its data on the “far reaching impact of Apple’s unfair policies”. Expect fireworks if CEOs Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg ever appear in the same congressional hearing together again…
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