Apple has become even more aggressive with its privacy policy since the introduction of iOS 14, which added several new features to allow users to control how third-party apps use their data. Facebook has criticized these changes and now some former employees have explained how iOS’s privacy features are affecting the company.
Apple is working on a new feature called App Tracking Transparency, which will be released to all users this spring with iOS 14.5. Once this feature goes live, applications will no longer be able to track users among other applications and websites without requiring users’ permission. Facebook, of course, is not happy about this, as the social network depends on ads for its revenue.
CNBC talked to some former Facebook employees who detailed how exactly the company will be affected by Apple’s new privacy policies. Like other platforms that sell ads, Facebook uses something called “view-through conversions” to measure how many users saw an ad and didn’t immediately interact with it, but then made a related purchase.
After the purchase, the retailer records the IDFA of the user who purchased the jeans and shares it with Facebook, which can determine whether the IDFA matches that of a user who saw an ad for the jeans. This shows the retailer that his Facebook ad worked.
Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) also provides Facebook and advertisers with a lot of information about the user who interacted with the ad, which also helps them determine which users a specific ad will be shown to.
With the App Tracking Transparency on iOS 14, users will be able to choose not to allow Facebook to record the IDFA, which would make it difficult to measure whether the ad was successful in its purpose. This can result in fewer advertisers using Facebook applications to promote their products and services, which will definitely make the company lose money.
The company also fears losing advertisers to Google, which currently has the largest online advertising platform with Google Ads.
Facebook is the number two recipient of online advertising dollars, behind Google. A particular threat is that advertisers will pour more money into Google’s search ad business, which Facebook cannot duplicate, and which targets users at the time of conversion.
Facebook has attacked Apple with campaigns that say the privacy changes of iOS 14 will hurt small businesses, as many of them use Facebook platforms to advertise their products and services. However, a former Facebook employee argues that these changes may not affect small businesses, as these companies are often located in specific cities or states, which makes it easier to determine the ad’s target audience without using IDFA trackers.
If you’re a small coffee shop in Austin, Texas, for example, you may not need a lot of data to target your ads, said Henry Love, a former employee of the Facebook small business team. Such a company usually limits its targeting to very broad categories – for example, an age range and a distance range from a specific postal code would allow them to target ads to Facebook users in their vicinity.
“If you spoke to any restaurant owner anywhere and asked what IDFA is, I don’t think any of them would know what it is,” said Love. “It is affecting Facebook on a large scale. Not small business owners. “
It doesn’t look like Facebook will try to disobey Apple, but the company will have a hard time convincing its users to enable the tracking option with iOS 14.5 – which is due to be released later this month.
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