Snap Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told CNBC on Friday that while future changes to Apple’s iPhone privacy will certainly be disruptive to advertising, it is ultimately the right choice for its consumers.
“We feel that we are well prepared for these changes and honestly, because these changes are in line with our privacy policy, we have never allowed device-specific targeting, for example, and we have always taken a very protective stance when it comes to our users’ data.” , said Spiegel in a “Squawk Alley” interview.
To target mobile ads and measure how effective they are, app developers and other industry players often use the Apple ID for Advertisers (IDFA), a unique string of letters and numbers on each Apple device. But once a privacy update is released, app makers will be required to request permission to access a user’s IDFA at a prompt. A significant portion of users are expected to say no, which will make targeted advertising less effective.
Spiegel’s more casual head for the future change is a dramatically different response from his Facebook colleague Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook also hosts a huge online advertising business, earning almost all of its advertising revenue.
Facebook has repeatedly attacked Apple for the planned change since it was announced in June, and has said it will affect small businesses.
“Apple might say they’re doing this to help people, but the moves are clearly in the interests of their competitors,” Zuckerberg said during Facebook’s earnings call last week. “We and others will fight against this for the foreseeable future.”
That doesn’t mean Snap isn’t worried at all. The company warned investors on Thursday in its fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday that Apple’s changes would pose a risk of discontinuing demand once they are implemented.
“The reason we highlight some of Apple’s policy changes is that they will impact our ability to effectively measure and optimize advertising outside of Snapchat,” Spiegel said.
Snap said it has worked with Apple to prepare for the changes and plans to give advertisers more opportunities to provide their products and services to Snap users directly through Snapchat.
“The reality is that we admire Apple and believe it is trying to do the right thing for their customers,” Snap business director Jeremi Gorman said of the company’s earnings call. “Their focus on protecting privacy is in line with our values and the way we have built our business from the beginning. In general, we feel very well prepared for these changes, but the changes to this ecosystem are usually disruptive, and the outcome is uncertain. “
– CNBC’s Megan Graham contributed to this report.
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