Facebook pop-ups to escalate feud with Apple

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook yesterday said that pop-up messages on its iPhone and iPad apps will tout benefits of targeted ads ahead of a privacy move by Apple that could curb tracking.

The tech giants have been clashing over a changes coming in Apple's iOS operating software, which will include a tracking transparency feature that Facebook claims could cripple its ability to serve up targeted ads and hurt many businesses.

A new Apple software feature referred to as a "privacy nutrition label" includes a displayed prompt telling people what tracking data is gathered by mobile apps and asking for permission to allow it.

"To help people make a more informed decision, we're also showing a screen of our own, along with Apple's," Facebook said in an updated post on the matter.

"It will provide more information about how we use personalised ads, which support small businesses and keep apps free."

A feud between the Silicon Valley companies heated up last week as Apple's chief executive implied Facebook's business model promotes disinformation and violence, and the social network reportedly prepared an antitrust suit against Apple over control of the App Store.

"As we have said repeatedly, 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," Facebook told AFP, declining to confirm or deny the report.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook seemed to take aim at Facebook when he blasted "disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms" during a virtual data privacy conference in Brussels last week.

Cook did not mention Facebook by name, but skewered business models built on targeted advertising, which accounts for most of the social network's revenue.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said during a recent earnings conference call that Apple was becoming one of his company's biggest competitors.

"Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to preference their own," Zuckerberg said.

"Apple may say that they're doing this to help people but the moves clearly track their competitive interests." – AFP, February 2, 2021