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Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are dangerously close to an all-out legal war, with the social media giant seriously considering a lawsuit that could ultimately influence antitrust investigators.
The conflagration focuses on Apple’s AAPL,
new iOS 14 policy, expected this spring. It includes new privacy features that, for the first time, will force apps to ask users for permission to track them on the web. Such a feature, Facebook FB,
allegations, would significantly limit online advertising and kill small businesses in the process.
The tension between the companies has escalated for years to the point that Facebook is considering suing Apple for giving preferential treatment to its own apps while imposing restrictive rules on third-party apps from Facebook and others, according to reports.
“As we have said on several occasions, we believe that Apple behaves in an anti-competitive manner by using its control of the App Store for the benefit of its bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses,” he said. a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to MarketWatch.
Apple did not comment.
Facebook, which launched a series of print and digital ads in December to make its point known, underscored its animosity during an earnings call with analysts on Wednesday.
“We are also seeing that Apple’s business is increasingly dependent on taking apps and services against us and other developers,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the call. “Apple therefore has every interest in using its dominant position on the platform to interfere with the functioning of our applications and other applications, which they regularly do to prefer theirs.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook escalated the hostility Thursday without mentioning Facebook by name.
“If a business is built on deceptive users, exploiting data, making choices that aren’t choices at all, then they don’t deserve our praise. It deserves reform, ”Cook said at Thursday’s computers, privacy and data protection online conference. “Too many people still ask the question, ‘How much can we get by? when they need to ask themselves, “What are the consequences?”
“What are the consequences of prioritizing conspiracy theories and incitement to violence simply because of their high engagement rate?” What are the consequences of content that is not only tolerant but rewarding, which undermines public confidence in life-saving vaccinations? What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups, then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends even more? “
The simmering conflict underscores contrasting business approaches: Apple slavishly emphasizes the consumer privacy philosophy in which the customer pays for their internet experience. Facebook, on the other hand, relies on data about its members to fuel its digital advertising business.
Read more: Facebook and Apple embody a new technological divide
Ironically, a legal showdown between the tech titans could hurt them on the competitive front, as the two are under investigation for the very things they blame each other on, says Elizabeth Renieris, founding director of the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab at the University of Notre Dame.
“What this feud demonstrates more than anything is that Facebook and Apple have enormous powers of control over the market,” she told MarketWatch.
“This demonstrates how much Facebook controls access to customers or the public through its advertising ecosystem,” Renieris said. “At the same time, the dispute reveals the power Apple has to arbitrate access to our personal data through its engineering choices and policy decisions.”
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