(Reuters) – Apple Inc. said on Thursday that new pop-up privacy notifications will start appearing on most iPhones in “early spring”, a requirement that major digital advertising companies, such as Facebook Inc, have warned. that will hurt your business.
One-time warnings will require an app developer to ask a user for permission before the app tracks their activities “on other companies’ apps and websites ”. Digital advertising experts believe the warning will cause many users to refuse permission.
Apple announced the move last June, but said in September that it would delay the move to give digital advertisers more time to adjust.
Facebook said in December that it plans to show the pop-up notification because it does not want Apple iPhone users to lose access to its applications.
In a earnings conference call on Wednesday, Facebook executives told investors that the move could start to hurt the company’s first quarter earnings, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg accusing Apple of having “all the incentives to use its dominant position on the platform to interfere with how our apps and other apps work. “
Apple said on Wednesday that it has an active installed base of 1.65 billion devices, more than 1 billion of which are iPhones, with 620 million paying subscribers on their devices.
In turn, Alphabet Inc.’s Google said on Tuesday it would end practices, including the use of a tracking identifier provided by Apple, which would require it to display the warning, thereby avoiding it.
Apple said it is offering a free alternative technology that will help advertisers assign paid clicks and ringtones, without getting involved in what Apple considers tracking.
Google said on Tuesday that it is working proactively with Apple to improve the alternative offering.
Apple said on Wednesday that it will launch new tools as a way to attribute clicks made to video ads.
Reporting by Stephen Nellis, Paresh Dave and Katie Paul in San Francisco; Edition by Sonya Hepinstall