A new round in the showdown between Apple and Facebook to collect user data

On Privacy Day, January 28th, an Apple Advertise the job Application Tracking Transparency (ATT) That will arrive in the coming months and allow users to decide Whether the apps can track your activity or not. This action has brought complaints from The social networking site FacebookThat I needed a few days ago during the shareholder conference.

In the coming months, the new Privacy Policy Apple is coming to iOS 14, Apps will ask users permission to track them. In December, Facebook posted requests in several newspapers in the US as it highlighted Apple’s policy “It will limit the ability of businesses to launch personalized ads and reach their customers effectively.”. It also ensured that advertisers would see their sales cut by 60% for every dollar they invest due to the company’s privacy policy led by Tim Cook.

In this context, according to CNBC, Facebook has begun testing a new message for iOS users. In the testing phase and for the small group, an ad appears in which Facebook asks if they want to Granting the app permission to “provide a better ad experience”. It comes with two buttons: “Allow / disallow”.

So if the user allows, according to a statement by Mark Zuckerberg, the ads he sees on Instagram and Facebook will not change. If you decide not to accept, you will continue to see the ads, but they will be “less relevant” to the user (that is, they will be less targeted to their tastes and interests).

The WhatsAppFor example, it suffered from a wave of service cancellations weeks ago after the changes to the terms and conditions of the platform were published, delayed to May of this year, since if people do not accept, they will no longer be able to use the service (as is the case on most platforms). In the case of Facebook, Instagram and iOS, it is not the same as WhatsApp. If people don’t accept the message, they can continue using their apps without problems

The Facebook test message on iOS does not ask users for permission to collect new data or information. It’s a test of the messages the company will display when the iOS14 changes to data traceability go into effect. The goal is informational, that is, to provide the user with context about what is included in the inter-app traceability and what its usefulness (in short, advertising).

Therefore, Apple policy requires organizations that collect and use certain types of data for advertising to display a file Prompt or message Users ask if they want to “track” them.

In this sense, accepting this informational screen and claiming Apple will not grant Facebook or Instagram any additional right to use the data, nor does it imply the collection of new types of data. Simply put, something that was already happening became visible. This information screen test as claimed by Apple in a global fashion, also includes Argentina.

Apple’s data traceability policy applies to third parties only. That is, apps that Apple doesn’t have. This means that their own apps will not show people this message by asking if they “want to be tracked”.

Within the framework of the conference on computers, privacy and data protection, a few days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook said:As I said in Brussels two years ago, the time has definitely come, not only for comprehensive privacy law here in the United States, but also for global laws and new international agreements. That define principles of minimum data use, as well as worldwide knowledge, access and data security. “