Top Insights
- Two big tech heavyweights are going at it over privacy
- After their relationship has allegedly been fraying for years, Tim Cook and Apple dropped the hammer on Facebook with their new privacy features in Monday's iOS 14.5 update
- "App Tracking Transparency" allows users to select which apps they want to share out-of-app data with
- This is an incredibly savvy move on two levels for Apple: 1) they can take a chunk out of Facebook's ~$84B in annual ad revenue and 2) they can potentially alleviate congressional heat on themselves while turning the heat UP on Facebook
- Facebook's best chance to fight back: give users an option to pay ~$100/year for access to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with total privacy and no data tracking
- Apple released its long-awaited iOS 14.5 update, which includes a new feature called "App Tracking Transparency" that allows users to select which apps they want to share out-of-app data with
- this means that if you choose not to share your data with Facebook, they won't be able to track what you do outside of their apps and target you with ads based on that data
- why is this so important for Facebook?
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- companies like Facebook follow people’s online habits as they click on other programs, like Spotify and Amazon, on smartphones
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- 98% of their revenue is ad-based
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- their highly-targeted ad platform relies on massive data sets gathered from other apps
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- they don't have "intent" behind searches (like Google does), so it's more difficult for Facebook to refine their ads based solely on in-app data
- New York Times reporters Mike Isaac and Jack Nicas published an article titled "Breaking Point: How Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook Became Foes" detailing the fraying relationship and escalating tensions between the Apple and Facebook CEOs
Breaking Point: How Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook Became Foes
After the 2016 election meddling and 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, a disturbed Tim Cook began distancing Apple from Facebook, first by adopting a new corporate motto: “Privacy is a fundamental human right.”
We believe users should have the choice over the data that is being collected about them and how it’s used. Facebook can continue to track users across apps and websites as before, App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 will just require that they ask for your permission first. - Tim Cook on Twitter
- Cook and Apple want customers to pay a premium for incredible products and a more private, safer version of the internet
- Steve Jobs always hated advertising, so that feeling is entrenched in Apple's DNA