Facebook is in a feud with Apple over the new updated privacy settings, the iPhone maker is scheduled to release early next year. The social networking giant ran a full page on December 16, criticizing Apple’s “forced software update” which according to Facebook will “limit businesses’ ability to run personalized ads”.
The social networking ran a second full page ad titled “Apple vs. the free internet”. The company ran the ad on December 17, one day after the first full page. The first ad was in New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post titled “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere”.
Apple is planning to implement a slew of new privacy features in iOS. Starting early next year, apps will not be able to gather data from users without their permission. Developers can ask users for permission to track their activity with the help of a pop-up prompt. Users can either agree to let that app track their activity or decline the request.
Facebook makes money from ads, and if the company is unable to track users activity, then it will be difficult to display ads that users are likely to interact with. The iOS update when (and if) implemented will have at-least some effect on Facebook’s revenue. However, the social networking giant is spinning the story as, by not tracking users activity, small businesses will be largely affected.
Apple has a completely different theory. “We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users,” an Apple spokesperson said, in response to the first full-page newspaper ad Facebook published on December 16. “Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not.”
