As Apple’s ad tracking opt-in pop-up is launched, Facebook has another trick up its sleeve
The fact that Facebook and Apple have been at odds for a decade is no mystery. Much of this has to do with their business philosophies, which are not in harmony with each other.
Apple, an innovation pioneer, believes that privacy is the fundamental right of every human being. Understandably, their products are expensive, but they largely guarantee the security of your data.
Facebook, on the other hand, believes in free services. But we all know, “when you’re not paying, you’re the product”. The king of social networks relied mainly on collecting user data and redirecting through advertising campaigns to boost their revenue source.
Lately, Apple has doubled data privacy, giving users much more transparency and better control over who uses their data.
After a series of improvements in the way of limited ad tracking (which was deeply buried in the settings), Bluetooth with a focus on privacy and location permissions with iOS 13, the Cupertino tech giant has taken things a step further on iOS 14 by entering approximate location access, App Store privacy reports, and third-party cookie blocking in Safari.
But from the perspective of advertising agencies, the recently announced transparency framework for app tracking has become a major point of discussion and has created more problems for Facebook.
If the ability to not track accurate location was not a curse for location-based advertisers, an optional ad tracking dialog certainly became the cause of concern for digital advertisers.
For those who don’t know, all App Store apps that generate ad revenue generally use Facebook or the Google Ads SDK. Either SDK uses the Apple Advertising Identifier (IDFA), a unique device string to identify a user. In doing so, advertising agencies can track individuals on apps, new installations via deep links, and subsequently earn revenue through redirected advertising campaigns.
With the advent of iOS 14, Apple announced a new ad structure with a focus on privacy, SKAdNetwork. Unlike before, apps would now be required to show the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system prompt, giving users the final option of “Allow” or “Ask the app not to track”. This single dialogue caused tremors across the mobile advertising industry, as IDFA became useless. If a user selects “Ask App Not to Track”, the SKAdNetwork would only send generic user information to the advertiser.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that most users would deny permission, considering it is a privacy nightmare. Unsurprisingly, this sparked protests on Facebook and Apple decided to postpone the feature until 2021 to give digital marketers and developers more time.
Now that the iOS 14 ATT prompt has started to launch, Facebook is trying to change the narrative of the entire campaign once again. They launched full-page ads in newspapers portraying Apple as the small business Darth Vader and criticizing them for ending the free Internet.
Ironically, Facebook is a company that has never supported small businesses and is known for its “copy, buy or kill” strategy. To add more fuel to the fire, Facebook is also the company that recently tried to force WhatsApp users to “send their data or lose their account” in the name of the privacy policy (although the shot backfired and they had to back down) .
Their entire anti-Apple marketing campaign was laughable, stank of despair and just showed how concerned they are with the privacy features of iOS 14.