- Facebook will start asking users for permission to track their data so they can target ads.
- The move comes as Apple prepares to introduce a privacy update that will force developers to ask users’ permission to detect it.
- Apple and Facebook are battling over the upcoming iOS privacy update.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Facebook is trying to outdo Apple in a privacy battle that has been going on for six months.
Facebook announced Monday that it will send a pop-up notification to iOS users asking permission to track their activity so they can be targeted with ads.
The pop-up tells users that allowing trackers means they ‘get ads that are more personalized’ and ‘support the business that relies on ads to reach customers’.
The popup will look like this.
Facebook
Facebook is only testing the pop-up on a few users at first, but eventually it will arrive for all iOS users before an update that Apple said would launch in early spring.
The Apple update will force app developers to ask users’ permission to collect their data for targeted advertising. Apple has not confirmed a date, but Insider reported earlier that it is aiming for March.
Read more: Apple achieved a record $ 111.4 billion in revenue. From $ 14.8 million to $ 26.3 million, here’s how the firm paid its executives in 2020.
The update was announced in the summer and was originally scheduled for September 2020, but Apple postponed the launch after Facebook protested, saying the update would boost developers’ advertising revenue.
Apple and Facebook have publicly cursed about the update, and Facebook claims Apple is setting itself up to get into the advertising industry, while Apple claims Facebook does not respect the privacy of its users.
The rivalry has increased again in the past week. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed in an income call that Apple was becoming one of Facebook’s “biggest competitors” and accused it of using privacy as a front to express competition.
Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to a data privacy conference with a thinly-veiled criticism on Facebook the next day.
The Information also reported that Facebook is filing an antitrust case against Apple.