Reports of a long-running dispute between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook have resurfaced.
According to the Journal, Tim Cook gave an interview on national television as a series of brews about Facebook’s data collection practices. During the appearance, Cook claims that Apple would never have been in the same position as the social media business.
According to the Journal, people familiar with the matter said that Zuckerberg’s comments in privacy go far beyond his public response that Cook is ‘extremely slippery’. The Facebook head apparently told his team that “we have to inflict pain” for what he believes is the poor treatment of his company, the report reads.
The tension between the two became known in 2014 when Cook criticized the business model of Facebook.
In the intervening years, the tension seems to be increasing. More recently, Cook took a turn at Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg accused Apple of misleading users. The specific row is focused on an iOS privacy update.
As Insider reports, Cook expressed outrage over business models that prioritized engagement in particular and collected user data to target users with ads. Although he did not name Facebook by name, it was a fairly transparent atmosphere on the social media network, the report said.
The iOS update will make it easier for users to refuse to track their data to enable targeted ads, DW recently reported. Detection can already be turned off on Apple devices, but only if users search through their settings to turn it off.
Once the update arrives, each user can refuse such data tracking when setting up a device, per DW.
Facebook is trying to anticipate the move by asking users for permission to track their data so they can target them with ads. As Insider reports, the request will take the form of a pop-up, telling users that allowing trackers means they ‘get ads that are more personalized’ and ‘support businesses that rely on ads to reach customers’.
Facebook’s position is that Apple is self-referential and has carved out policies that benefit from it. According to the social media giant, Apple’s definition of ‘tracking’ is that data must pass through a third party to be considered tracking. It states that by definition it applies to every app and website and business – except Apple which owns the operating system.
According to Facebook, Apple has also extended special privileges for their own measurement of ads, misleading users about their own data practices by not sharing their privacy labels that link their identifiers to account information, just as they let competitors do.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to Insider, Facebook said: “This is not about two companies – it’s about the future of free internet. Apple is creating two sets of rules – one for themselves and one for small businesses, app developers and consumers who Apple claims that it’s about privacy, but it’s about profit, and we join others in demonstrating their self-referential, competitive behavior. ‘
This story has been updated with further information from Facebook.