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27/08/2020

New Privacy Rules Of Apple To Hit Smaller Firms But Spare iPhone Maker’s Apps: Facebook




New Privacy Rules Of Apple To Hit Smaller Firms But Spare iPhone Maker’s Apps: Facebook
The changes in the privacy policies of Apple Inc is likely to hit smaller developers such as gaming companies in a disproportionate manner but the company’s own apps will remain mostly unscathed, warned the social media company Facebook Inc on Wednesday.
 
Facebook itself was making some changes to its own apps – which includes WhatsApp and Indtsgram, that would allow the apps not to ask iPhone users for data-tracking permissions which many advertisers believe will be refused by users, the largest social media company said in a blog post.
 
The changes being made by Facebook could also hurt smaller developers that use the company’s platforms and tools to serve apps to users in third-party apps, Facebook also said in thee blog post. These changes will be implemented prior to those of Apple’s that would mandate increased user notifications for ad tracking and would be implemented with the launch of new iPhones this fall.
 
A tool called Audience Network, which thousands of developers put into their apps to serve ads, is also being contemplated to be discontinued on iPhones, Facebook said. Data about its users is collected by Facebook from the apps where it serves those ads and then the social media company uses that data to inform highly tailored targeting throughout its business.
 
"Apple's updates may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14," Facebook said in a blog post.  
 
Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence at GroupM, said that despite being an important source of revenue and traffic to small developers such as gaming companies, the Audience Network business of Facebook is much smaller compared to the biggest business of the social media company. "It would surprise me if it was greater than $1 billion on a net basis," he said.
 
A tool called the identifier, or IDFA, was previously provided by Apple for advertisers that allowed Facebook and others to engage in such tracking of users across apps.
 
In June however, Apple said that such activity will now mandate a pop-up notification for users that should say that the app "would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies." Most users will decline to grant that permission, expects most digital advertising firms.
 
"Apple is saying, we had an 'opt out' system before, and we're going to switch to an 'opt in' system," said Craig Danuloff, chief executive of The Privacy Co, which makes an app to help users assess how private their data is.
 
"What do advertisers say? They immediately assume it's Armageddon. They just know nobody really wants this."
 
A new advertising network technology that was better for privacy protection of users was provided to advertisers as an alternative to the tracking tools it previously provided.
 
Use of Apple's older tracking tools in its own apps would be stopped by Facebook and would instead use Apple's new offering, Facebook on Wednesday, adding that the new technology of Apple "limits the data available to businesses for running and measuring campaigns."
 
(Source:www.usnews.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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