According to Facebook, Apples new App Tracking Transparency feature will cost the company $12 billion in losses. This feature is designed to protect users privacy prevent the use of their private data being collected and sold by tech giants like Facebook's META. Apple's CEO Tim Cook tweeted "We believe users should have the choice over the data that is being collected about them and how it’s used." This comes at an interesting time, as the last few years bombshell after bombshell have revealed how our data has been used and manipulated to turn a profit. This update prompts users with a pop up clearly giving the option to allow or not allow Facebook to track their data.
How did these apps track our data in the first place? With the use of a code known as IDFA or Identifier for advertisers, companies like Facebook imbed permission to access and sell data in their terms of conditions. Apples new software is designed to override this code, creating one of their own which blocks it. When an Apple user opts out of sharing their data with an app, the code that usually holds users data is sent back to the company as zeros rather than numbers. With the introduction of this new software launched by Apple, there is a push to create new code which will work around its restrictions. With billions of dollars on the line, it's no mystery why. This situation reveals a long time suspicion of social media users and reservationists.
Reports from third party tech world observers have shown that Apples ATT (App Tracking Transparency) is not as functional as it was led to be. There are loopholes which still allow for companies to collect data from users. Literally the largest company in the world, is Apple truly concerned with user privacy or is this their way of addressing concerns of their clientele without actually solving the problem? TikTok's terms of service has become notorious for its invasive nature. Evotek's Chief Information Security Officer has been quoted saying about TikTok's data retrieval practices, “It is, from my perspective, a clear and present danger in terms of the amount of data that is collected. It has elements within its terms of service that allow TikTok to share the information collected with anybody and everybody that they choose to." TikTok however, did not come up in my research in writing this piece about Apple and Facebook.
Appsumer has reported that since establishing their ATT program, Apple's own ad revenues have skyrocketed. Apple's App Search ad revenues have grown by 4% in the year since ATT's arrival, with Facebooks growth shortly behind at 3%. Appsumer reports that Apple which had previously been staunchly behind Facebook and Google, now showed quarterly reports nearly identical to Google and slightly above Facebook. I do not take myself as a conspiracy theorist, but this initiative seems to me to be more about business than protecting users.
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