Seldom has a tech giant excoriated another as Apple did Facebook. What are the consequences of prioritising conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of their high rates of engagement? asked Apples boss, Tim Cook, in a speech on January 28. A social dilemma, he thundered, cannot be allowed to become a social catastrophe. Facebook was singled out without being named. Last year it complained about its portrayal in The Social Dilemma, a hit Netflix documentary.
Cooks warning came in response to Facebooks own broadsides against Apples forthcoming app-tracking transparency measure. Soon a pop-up from Apple will start asking users of the latest version of ios, its mobile operating system, if they want named apps such as Facebook to track their digital activity across other companies apps and websites. Huge numbers are expected to demur. That is likely to damage Facebook, possibly Google and a wide range of other ad-tech businesses.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Cooks righteous wrath makes it easy to forget how in the early days, Apple enabled ad tracking. In the 2000s app developers and advertisers learned to use its unique device identifiers to follow users around the internet. These udids, as they were known for short, were permanently attached to every iPhone or iPad and made it easy to keep tabs on individuals online activity. Then in 2010 a privacy furore erupted around Apple and Google. Two years later Apple responded by banning app developers from using udids. For a brief few months advertisers could barely track its customers at all.
The sixth incarnation of ios introduced a new, less intrusive tool called identifiers for advertisers. Unlike udids, these can be blocked, and do not identify users personally; any data collected are aggregated before being used. But they still allow tracking, which is switched on by default on iPhones, and fiddly to turn off. Apples aim back then was to help app developers earn revenue in ios.
READ MORE:* The pandemic has shown that Amazon is essential – but vulnerable* With Jeff Bezos out as Amazon CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is the last man standing* Apple vs Facebook: Why I’m on Team Apple* Why Apple is about to turn the iPhone app industry upside down
Now privacy is more central than ever to Apples brand. Four years ago it stopped tracking users on Safari, its web browser. Google, too, has announced plans to eliminate third-party tracking cookies from its Chrome browser by 2022. Ad-industry insiders find it odd that identifiers for advertisers are still around; last year some in the mobile-ad industry reckoned Apple was going to kill them off. With app-tracking transparency at least some users will presumably allow cookies to stay.
Facebook has nevertheless fought back hard. In December the social network took out newspaper ads claiming that Apples changes would hurt small businesses. Announcing Facebooks earnings on January 27 Mark Zuckerberg, its boss, explained how his firm gives tiny firms ad-targeting tools that in the past only large companies had the resources to employ. This echoed other ad-tech types warnings of a return to a spray and pay world where, once again, half of all ads are wasted but no one knows which half. Moreover, Facebook argues, Apple is trying to shift the internets business model from one that is chiefly ad-supported to one that is increasingly paid for. In this view, Apples stance on privacy is not selfless but self-serving.
Facebooks campaign against Apple could go beyond public admonishments. Last month rumours swirled that Zuckerbergs firm might sue the iPhone-maker over alleged preferential treatment given to its own apps in its App Store, while it imposes restrictions on third-party developers like Facebook. Apples App Store is already under scrutiny by Americas Department of Justice and the European Unions competition watchdog.
Of course, Facebooks own protestations are not exactly disinterested. It may want to divert attention from the antitrust lawsuits it itself faces. And the company will probably take a hit to its top line as a result of Apples move. In late January it named the latest ios changes as a headwind for its ad business this year.
Most people will welcome Apples privacy proposal. But its ability to impose it on a big industry has underlined its power in a way that may not be entirely helpful for it. As for Facebook, its task now is to come up with its own pop-up to reassure people that its ad-tracking is harmlesseven for the most talented ad creative, a tough brief.
© 2020 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist published under licence. The original article can be found on www.economist.com