Facebook is publicly attacking Apple’s upcoming iOS privacy changes in newspaper ads printed on December 16th.
“We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere,” the ad reads. The ad was printed in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
The ads are a response to Apple’s iOS 14 system that aims to curb companies like Facebook from targeting users with ads. Under the new changes, developers will be required to ask users for permission to gather data.
In a blog post, Facebook says that the changes “will have a harmful impact on many small businesses that are struggling to stay afloat and on the free internet that we all rely on more than ever.”
Facebook says that the new policy is “more about profit than privacy” and that the changes will benefit Apple and expand its fees and business.
“We believe Apple is behaving anti-competitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses,” Facebook notes.
Apple has responded to the ads and stated that: “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.”
“App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.”
Apple was originally going to roll out these changes with the release of iOS 14 in September, but later decided to delay them until early next year. These new changes will impact Facebook’s ad business as more people will likely opt-out of the data and tracking permissions.
Update 16/12/20 8:10pm ET: The article was updated to include a statement from Apple.
