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The big picture: Apple said in a letter to privacy advocates that it is implementing “app tracking transparency” in iOS 14 a bit early to prevent Facebook from collecting “as much data as possible” to monetize its users. The social giant immediately retaliated, accusing the Cupertino giant of using its dominant position to “prefer its own data collection”.
Last month, a coalition of civil and human rights organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing disappointment at the company decision to delay full implementation of iOS 14 anti-tracking features until early 2021.
Earlier this month, Apple backtracked on those plans and decided to implement privacy “ nutrition labels ” as a mandatory feature that developers must bring to their iOS apps starting next month. However, we don’t know all the details of how this system works and what steps Apple will take to ensure that developers provide accurate information about the user information tracked by their apps.
Apple has now responded to the letter and offered to clarify a few points about its plans to protect user privacy on iOS 14. Jane Horvath, the company’s senior director of global privacy, explained that the App Tracking Transparency feature ( ATT) was delayed to give developers enough time to prepare for the changes. Starting next year, developers will not only be required to ask for user permission before tracking them on apps and websites, but the user themselves can turn off this tracking altogether.
Horvath says the feature was developed due to growing concern about users “being tracked without their consent and the aggregation and resale of data by ad networks and data brokers.” She also notes that ATT is not intended to prevent advertising, but simply to encourage advertising that respects user privacy on a par with Apple:
Advertising that respects privacy is not only possible, it was the norm until the growth of the Internet. Some companies who would prefer ATT never be implemented have said that this policy only weighs on small businesses by limiting advertising options, but in fact the current data arms race mainly benefits large companies with sets of data. big data. Privacy-driven ad networks were the universal standard in advertising before the practice of unhindered data collection began in the past decade. We hope that increasing user demands for privacy and security, along with changes like ATT, will make these privacy-focused advertising standards robust again.
The letter maintains the same critical stance Tim Cook cultivated at Apple that social media companies like Facebook are inherently bad and must be regulated because promises of self-policing have not translated into action around the world. real.
In contrast, Facebook and others take a very different approach to targeting. Not only do they allow users to be grouped into smaller segments, but they use detailed data about online browsing activity to target ads. Facebook executives have made it clear that their intention is to collect as much data as possible on proprietary and third-party products to develop and monetize detailed profiles of their users, and this disregard for user privacy continues to expand. to include more of their products.
In August, Facebook became the outspoken critic of the App Tracking Transparency feature, and described it as a radical change that would make its Audience Network tools so ineffective that it might even reconsider its offering on iOS 14. Of course, the expected real incomes decline by 40%, so it’s not exactly the end of the world, but the social giant has been looking for ways to soften the impact of these changes.
In addition, Facebook has now responded to Apple’s statements with a lengthy statement accusing Apple of trying to distract users from the privacy concerns that have come to light in recent years, such as the IDFA used on iOS devices, and the possible data collection methods used on macOS spotted by security researcher Jeffrey Paul.
This latter issue is particularly significant, as it forced Apple to clarify how its Gatekeeper anti-malware service works, especially since it acted as a single point of failure last week for people trying to launch malware. third-party apps while Apple’s servers were hammered. with macOS Big Sur deployments. As spotted by 9to5Mac, the Cupertino giant quickly updated the support documentation to explain that Gatekeeper does not track users and will soon be updated to use an encrypted protocol for data transmissions and to allow users to log in. disengage from these safety protections.
Facebook alleges that Apple is simply sweeping away these revelations and systematically arms user privacy and market position whenever practical in order to bolster its own services, which may soon include a search engine.
They use their dominant position in the market to prefer their own data collection themselves while making it nearly impossible for their competitors to use the same data. […] They claim it’s about confidentiality, but it’s about profit.
Whatever the case, Apple may have chosen a fight with Facebook at the wrong time. The iPhone maker has often touted its attention to detail as well as the privacy and security of its users as the main selling points, but it’s getting a little hard to believe. As for Facebook, it just seems upset that it will soon have a harder time targeting a coveted demographic for advertising purposes.
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