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"Privacy means, people know what they are signing up for, in plain English. Some people want to share more data than others do, certainly a personal choice but ask them, ask them every time!". Apple's CEO, Mr. Tim Cook seems to be taking this statement by Steve Jobs very seriously and wants Apple to follow the practice from now on. Apple has already taken its first step with the release of the IOS 14.5! Isn't this a great move? Wait, is someone really against this? Are you thinking about the same thing, as I am? Though Apple is facing opposition from many parties, the strongest and the most noticeable is Facebook. But, why Facebook? Both companies have a completely different market with very few similar products. Then, why are they even in the circle? Let's decode this and get to the roots of this fight!
Apple is a tech company that mostly sells hardware products but now is getting more deeply into the ocean of online services like music streaming, podcast, online payment, etc. Facebook is a social network that also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. In the recent IOS updates, that is the IOS 14.5, Apple has given users a choice, to allow whether apps can track their mobile activity or not. Now, how does this actually work? How do apps track activity, and how come Apple is making it a choice? And most importantly, why is Facebook against, this seemingly good decision?
So, the feature that is introduced in IOS is called, App Tracking Transparency. For years every device running IOS has a secret string of numbers, called the IDFA (Identifiers for Advertising). This number helps apps, to understand activities you carry out throughout the mobile device. Whenever you install any new application, it records your IDFA. Consider, I download a new movie streaming application. This app used to record your IDF automatically, without any prior notification or alert. So now every app on your device, has your IDFA, including your newly downloaded movie streaming app. The true game starts here! If the movie streaming app wants to run an advertisement, for its a premium subscription, it's a high chance that people already who are a user will convert for further features and benefits. As I am already a user, the app grabs my IDFA. Here's where the next tech tycoon enters. It's, Facebook! Facebook's business model is to earn from advertisement, by giving highly personalized and converting ads. The movie streaming app decides to run an ad campaign on Facebook. Now to get a higher conversion chance, the app shares my IDFA to Facebook, saying, "Hey, this is one of our users with IDFA, for example, 098656, if you know this user please show him this advertisement!". Now, Facebook checks if there is any user with the IDFA, and if so, it'll show the ad of the movie streaming app to me! And you know what? If I am really enjoying the free plan, I'll switch to premium! Booom! The application got a premium, paying user and I got new features! Coming back to IOS 14.5, what changed here? So, now when you install an app it'll give an alert, asking whether you want the app to track you. If I say yes, the app will get my IDFA, and if no, it won't! And there's a high chance most of the users would choose no! You probably, have started to get why Facebook is against it!
Facebook's business model is based on, giving conversions to many businesses through highly targeted ads. Previously it was possible for them to get the IDFA and show the personalized ads, not only on the Facebook app but also other apps, who want to earn through advertisement. Since IOS 14.5, Facebook sees an increasing threat to the ads business. If they don't get the IDFA, it'll be increasingly difficult to target the right IOS users. "We increasingly see Apple as a competitor. It has every incentive, to use its dominant position to interfere with how our apps work on the platform.", say's Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO. To which Apple's CEO, Tim Cook says, "If a business is built on misleading users, exploiting data, on choices, that are no choices! It doesn't deserve our praise, it deserves reform!". Facebook has also accused Apple saying that they are against small businesses reaching the right audience, and are trying to be more uncompetitive than ever before. Even after several tries and accusations, Apple rolled out the feature for IOS. Now every time you download an app, it'll ask you whether you want it to track your activities. This does not stop here! The fight goes up to our heads. You are right, the race towards augmented reality. Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook, is investing heavily in Augmented Reality glasses. Apple too has shown a lot of interest in the development of augmented reality. So, the fight doesn't seem to end here and may get more intense than Android vs IOS, or Windows vs Mac. Who finally won? No one between them, but users got a new and more secured update! Huh, enough for today, will meet soon, back on Currsive!