Apple hits out against Facebook as fight between companies over privacy escalates
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple has hit out against Facebook after the social media company said it would kill small businesses and was tricking its customers.
The increasingly fraught fight between the two companies comes after Apple said that it would add a new privacy feature that would allow iPhone users to opt out of having their activity tracked between different apps.
Apple has said that the feature is intended to protect its users’ privacy and to encourage developers only to collect the information they need. It has also been supported by civil rights groups including Amnesty International and even competitors such as Mozilla.
But Facebook said in a new blog post – and ads published in major US newspapers – that Apple was deceiving its users. Its supposed concerns about privacy were actually about its own profits, it argued, and it also said that fighting against personalised ad tracking could kill small businesses.
Now Apple has said in a new statement that the argument is about choice, and that users would still be able to opt to have their data tracked if they wanted.
“We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. 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," Apple said in a statement.
"App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.”
The company also shared a mock-up of the opt-in notification as it will appear to users when it is rolled out early next year.
Apple said last month that it would be pushing ahead with the feature, after it was delayed, in response to a letter from a host of civil rights groups. Software chief Craig Federighi told The Independent then that the new feature was in line with Apple’s historic commitment to privacy.
After Apple revealed its reply to that letter, Facebook launched an attack on the company, arguing that it was actually prizing its own profits rather than privacy and could hurt small businesses. The skirmishes between the two companies have continued since, and escalated with the release of the ads and blog post yesterday.
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