Recently, Facebook and its linked platforms (WhatsApp mostly, but Instagram isn’t innocent either) have been at odds with their users over issues of privacy scraping. Of particular mention is a mass flight of WhatsApp users to other platforms as they escape the chat app’s new privacy updates. Now, in light of Apple’s upcoming privacy changes tied to it’s iOS update, Facebook will begin to show a prompt on the iOS app persuading users to allow ad-tracking.
The prompt explains to users why they should allow Facebook to “use future activity that other apps and websites send” them (which is a non-inflammatory way of asking you to let them track your online activity) to make ads more personalized. This supports small businesses, says the social media titan.
This prompt comes ahead of Apple’s next iOS update which includes a privacy change that will require developers to ask users to opt-in to ad tracking. Previously, no such request was mandatory.
Your privacy, your choice
Facebook has sent out the prompt in anticipation of most users declining to allow ad-tracking. According to The Verge, a report from The Information provided estimates that only around a fifth of users would agree to have their online activity tracked by the platform. Ouch.
A Facebook spokesperson told The Verge that the prompt was intended to “Help people make a real choice”, as the company believes that Apple’s own ad-tracking prompt “is designed to provide a false trade-off between personalized ads and privacy”.
In any case, the prompt is clearly Facebook bracing for the impact of Apple’s privacy update, and it will be interesting to see how many people do buy into ad-tracking when the new iOS update rolls around later this year.
(Source: The Verge)