Apple Inc's Fight for Privacy
- Jane Lee
- Mar 23, 2022
- 2 min read
Late last year, Apple. Inc took an unprecedented decision to stop the unauthorized use of selling ads without permission relating to all Apple products. The new iOS 14 update allows Apple users to change their settings so that each application downloaded on any Apple product must have approval by the user before the personalized ads could be sold.
The current model that many big media companies like Instagram and Facebook users are tracking a user's activities, taking that information, and curating it into personalized ads targeting the specific user. Many people take issue with this method, as the ads being sold are not usually authorized by users, and believe it is wrong for big companies like Facebook or Snapchat to sell their information for profit. However, information that is being sold is not only sold for advertising reasons as well as pushing news or other informational content. Facebook changed its algorithm back in 2018 to spread more news onto more feeds. However, the algorithm change also impacted people's type of news or information. A study found that Facebook was the top website to receive misinformation and that misinformed news sources got 6x more reviews than reputable news sources.
In a statement regarding the algorithm change, Facebook said, “Our goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time, so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them.” Without this information tracking from any Apple Inc. products, Facebook value and ads revenue will plummet, and Facebook knows this.
In response to the new iOS update, Metaverse, formerly known as Facebook, said, “Apple has released changes with iOS 14 that prohibit certain data collection and sharing unless people opt into tracking on iOS 14.5 or later devices via the prompt. In response to these changes, we are processing pixel conversion events and app events from iOS 14.5 or later devices using Aggregated Event Measurement.”
So what does the new iOS update mean for Facebook? This new update allows users to finally control their data and stop corrupt companies from stealing their information. With more people turning off their information being mined and tracked, companies like Facebook will have a more challenging time targeting their audience. They will lose value in their ad sale revenues. Facebook is dealing with the repercussions of the new updates. In January 2022, Facebook had the most significant one-day drop ever, where Facebook lost 230 billion dollars in one-day, researchers citing Apple's new update as a big factor.
This also gives back the power to the users. No longer, will big corporations like Facebook use our information without our permission, and make big profit off of people. Hopefully, people take advantage of Apple's new change and create a deeper understanding the power of information that is stored in social media. Giving back the valuable information, the user now has a choice to utilize their information.
I think users should be able to benefit as much as Facebook for the use of their information. I think platform-based cryptocurrencies that are earned by the user whenever the site collects their data would be a really interesting method of providing users with value. I do believe there is an equitable solution, but the internet has been transforming so quickly since its invention, that we have never been able to catch up with privacy policy. I don't think we are really catching up at all since it was Apple's move that affected Facebook and not a piece of privacy policy. I hope we can get somewhere soon where users have rights to their data and to the profit that…
It's honestly ridiculous that this was allowed in the first place. Privacy never should have been automatically forfeit just in order to use everyday services and devices. There's absolutely no need for it- advertising and other kinds of marketing worked just as fine in an age without computers as it does now.
Hah, its about time I suppose. This brings to mind the whole discussion over allowing governments to have backdoor access to apple products that happened not too long ago, where I believe they took a similar position. Hopefully its something we can count on them to uphold but with the growth of the data market I have my doubts.
This is a very interesting. Honestly, good for Apple for taking a stand. The amount of data that we give to these companies--most of the time unknowingly--is really scary. These companies know almost everything about us, and buy and sell that information all day. I like how apple is making it known to people that their data is being used and giving them the option to opt out.
The collection and sale of user data has been a huge issue in the past couple of years. At my marketing internship last year I know there was a lot of tlak about how privacy restrictions on data would impact marketing and advertising efforts. I agree that the selling of data can be extremely invasive for users and this new policy from Apple is reassurance that this will happen. Great topic!