For several weeks, the battle has been burning between two tech giants, Facebook and Apple. The first criticizes the second for using its position to favor its applications vis-à-vis third-party systems, in particularin the conflict between WhatsApp and iMessage. But the Apple brand is also in Facebook's sights after announcing that it wants to reduce advertising tracking as much as possible. An announcement that Facebook took very badly, tracking being one of the social network's primary sources of income.
Since then, a conflict has begun between the two companies, which respond to each other with press releases and statements in the media. But Facebook went even further a few days ago, by launching an awareness campaign among its users against AppTrackingTransparency, Apple's new feature which protects user privacy.
To fully understand this conflict, we must look in detail at this new option implemented by Apple with the release of iOS 14. Like confidentiality labels, this new functionality aims to better inform the user on how to whose data is collected. The idea for Apple is not to prevent the collection of personal data, but to make it transparent, as summarized by Tim Cook in this tweet.
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.pic.twitter.com/UnnAONZ61I
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook)December 17, 2020
Facebook a tort, Apple a raison ?
An initiative that is not new on the Cupertino side, but which seems to become an increasingly important issue over the years. With the implementation of this maximum transparency of advertising tracking,Apple “went further than we hoped” says Mozilla, another large Internet company, favorable to the tracking restrictions desired by Apple.
But on Facebook's side, the problem is seen in a completely different way. Indeed, customer tracking is a colossal source of revenue for the group and its loss could well undermine an entire economy. Facebook fears that small businesses that use this service a lot will be impacted by this Apple announcement, when their 2020 is already quite complicated.
Despite everything, the NGO, EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, made its choice, and for it, the question is settled. Apple is right and Facebook is wrong. Respect for user privacy goes above any economic principle, and the measures put in place by Apple must be applied, for better knowledge of the use made of our data. In order to, ultimately, give power back to users vis-à-vis large internet groups.
