Facebook hits back at Apple’s privacy change by posting its own post

The social network wants to encourage users to track their iPhones and iPads to serve personalized ads.

The war is growing between Facebook and Apple, and the social network seems to want to get ahead of its opponent. In a blog post, Facebook says it will ask a small percentage of iPhone users for their consent for the social network to track their activities on other sites and apps for advertising purposes. This test comes before Apple’s privacy changes next spring, during an update of iOS 14.

A message to control your personal data

“Allow Facebook to use your activity on third-party apps and sites?”, can we read the message provided on iOS 14. To justify this data capture’s interest, the social network highlights two points: the user will see more personalized advertisements, and it will help companies who rely on targeted ads from Facebook and Instagram to reach their customers. In other words, access to user activity would allow Facebook to “offer a better advertising experience.” The group also seeks to reassure its users by specifying that “this will not give us access to new types of information.”

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Faced with this notification, each person will have to choose between the option “Allow” or “Do not allow “Facebook to collect data on their activity outside the American group’s applications. By clicking on the second option, the ads will be less precise because Facebook will no longer track the user while browsing the Internet or when traveling in the real world, and thus aggregate data allowing to refine the socio-marketing profile of the Internet user.

Facebook has just launched its test phase, which will also take place on Instagram. The social network has indicated that users’ selection during this period will be respected and saved. They can also change their ad tracking settings at any time after Apple has made its privacy changes. The latter will offer a feature to disable all tracking and manage applications individually. For Facebook, the modifications of the Cupertino company will harm its advertising activity.

Growing Tensions with Apple

Facebook leads a public fight against Apple’s plan to ask iPhone users if they allow apps and websites to track them. The company, led by Mark Zuckerberg, had argued that Apple’s new feature would hurt small businesses that depend on Facebook ads to find customers. Facebook also claims that Apple is threatening the free web by destabilizing the online advertising ecosystem, which relies on analyzing behavioral data from internet users.

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Facebook’s initiative should allow the social network to test and refine the types of messages most likely to encourage Internet users to keep their personal data captured for advertising purposes. And this before Apple’s new policy comes into effect next spring.

Last week, the CEO of Facebook claimed that Apple was on its way to becoming one of its biggest competitors. The next day, Apple CEO Tim Cook alluded to Facebook in a speech at a data privacy conference in Brussels, saying: “If a business is built on deceptive users, on the exploitation of data, on choices that are not at all alternatives, it does not deserve our praise. She deserves contempt. “