Apple's anti-app tracking policy is all about profit, not privacy, Facebook says

Apple has to pivot to their services business as their hardware sales are slowing and with these changes, Apple will make more profit from the App Store, Facebook said.

The Zuckerberg-owned company accused the new policy for hurting small businesses who are already struggling in a pandemic.

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Facebook slammed Apple's new App Tracking Transparency policy for being more about the iPhone maker's own profit, and not privacy.

"They’re creating a policy — enforced via iOS 14’s AppTrackingTransparency — that’s about profit, not privacy," said Dan Levy, VP Ads and Business Products, Facebook in a statement.

The new policy is said to give users a choice on whether apps can track them or not to show personalised ads.

Facebook says that Apple's new policy will force content creators to explore other ways to make money outside of advertising, like charging people for subscription or in-app payments.

This means big business for Apple as those purchases are subject to a commission to Apple ranging from 15% to 30%.

Apple has to pivot to their services business as their hardware sales are slowing and with these changes, Apple will make more profit from the App Store, Facebook said.

It does not expect the entrepreneurs and creators to have the capacity to provide free content to people any more, as their ad-revenue will be hit by Apple’s update changes.

However, Apple’s own personalised ad platform is exempted from the new iOS 14 policy and the requirements imposed on others, Facebook complained.

"They’re not playing by their own rules," Facebook said.

Apple’s data use

Apple itself uses the data it collects like the in-app purchase data to improve the efficacy of its own ad products.

The Zuckerberg-owned company also accused the new policy for hurting small businesses and publishers who are already struggling in a pandemic.

"We believe Apple is behaving anti-competitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses," Dan said.

 

Limiting the effectiveness of personalised advertising, will make it harder for small businesses to reach their target audience, which will limit their growth and ability to compete with big companies.

The social media company estimates that small businesses could see a cut of over 60% of website sales from ads, without personalized ads powered by their own data.

If these changes go through, established businesses with large marketing budgets will have the advantage taking us back to the age of TV advertising. But the big business that benefits the most is Apple, Facebook said.