Facebook is continuing its campaign against a privacy feature planned by Apple in 2021, but told companies in an email that it has “no choice” but to comply with the iOS 14 change.
The function in question makes a type of tracking of advertisers explicitly chosen by users. Facebook has launched a full-scale campaign against the feature, including full-page newspaper ads, claiming it could affect small and medium-sized businesses.
In an email sent to Facebook business users seen by immoral, the social media giant continued that campaign, stating that the registration prompt will have “strong implications for targeting, optimizing and measuring the effectiveness of the campaign for companies advertising on mobile devices and the web.”
“Apple’s changes will benefit them, while affecting the industry and the ability of companies of all sizes to market effectively and grow through personalized advertising,” Facebook continued. “We believe that personalized ads and user privacy can coexist.”
While Facebook says it does not agree with the privacy function, it told business users that it has “no choice” but to adopt the prompt. He added that if he did not comply, he could risk being removed from the App Store.
In the coming weeks, Facebook says it will provide more guidance and advice to help companies prepare for future change. If users give up on tracking advertisers, Facebook said, it could result in “potentially low advertising effectiveness and limited measurement.”
Earlier, Facebook estimated that the function could see advertising revenue fall by up to 60%.
Originally planned for a release in iOS 14, Apple has delayed the implementation of the anti-tracking prompt until 2021 to give companies and advertisers more time to prepare for the feature.
Although some advertising-dependent companies – including Facebook – have spoken out against the feature, some privacy groups and organizations have praised Apple for its implementation.
Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, has launched a campaign to thank Apple for protecting privacy. Digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation praised Apple for implementing the feature and called Facebook’s campaign against it “ridiculous.”
A December report also indicated that there were some internal disagreements over the anti-Apple campaign within Facebook. Some employees believe the Facebook attacks are unwarranted and could turn against the social media giant.
The anti-tracking transparency feature is scheduled for launch in early 2021, although an exact date is currently unclear.