Illustration of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 14. -

SOPA Images / SIPA / SIPA

Nothing is going well between Apple and Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg donned boxing gloves on Wednesday to respond to Apple's new measures on transparency in data collection by downloadable apps from the iPhone maker's online store, accusing the apple brand of harming to small businesses by threatening their advertising revenues… And his.

Full pages of advertising in the

New York Times

, the

Wall Street Journal

and the

Washington Post

, the launch of a website collecting testimonials from small traders and a vitriolic platform: the social media giant has not skimped on the means.

Facebook has taken out full-page newspaper ads to slam Apple's privacy changes in iOS 14. Facebook claims Apple's changes will be "devastating to small businesses."

Details here: https://t.co/4Yvj1QttFO pic.twitter.com/bihND9G4o6

- Tom Warren (@tomwarren) December 16, 2020

A postponed iOS update

In the sights of the group led by Mark Zuckerberg, an update to Apple's iOS mobile operating system requiring application developers to provide extensive details about the collection and use of users' personal information in the App Store, the virtual store of the Cupertino (California) giant.

“Apple's new iOS 14 rules are going to have a detrimental impact on many small businesses struggling to stay afloat and on the free Internet, on which we all rely more than ever,” writes Dan Levy, vice-president. president of Facebook's advertising and business products in a blog post.

To defend these changes, which have been mentioned since June and are part of a vast company policy on data management, Apple highlights a concern for transparency.

Limited advertising revenue

The ATT (App Tracking Transparency) feature, which is to be deployed on a large scale in early 2021, will indeed force mobile applications to ask users for their permission to track them, thus responding to insistent requests from several NGOs and consumer groups.

But Facebook, which has been voicing its opposition to ATT since the summer, swears Apple is far more interested in financial gain than privacy by seeking to drastically limit the ability for developers to serve ads. targeted.

This content is also an important source of income for Facebook itself.

"This will force companies to turn to in-app subscription and purchase models, which means Apple will benefit and many free services will have to become paid or exit the market," defends Dan Levy.

He also accuses Apple of not complying with its own rules by not subjecting its personalized advertising platform to the new measures.

A 30% commission that goes wrong

Another subject of conflict between the two pillars of tech relates to the commission that the iPhone maker takes on consumer transactions made through the App Store, which can amount to up to 30%.

The amount of this “tax” is notably contested by Epic Games, the publisher of the popular

Fortnite

video game

, the downloading of which is banned from Apple devices until the summer of 2021, as well as by Spotify.

In his column, Dan Levy indicates that Facebook, which has taken up the cause for Epic Games, will provide elements to justice showing that this ban hits the advertising revenues of the social network.

Apple has not officially responded to Facebook's latest offensive.

But at a summit in Brussels last week, Apple's vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, anticipated negative reactions to the new transparency measures.

He then called the attacks "eccentric statements" and "shameless attempts to maintain the status quo on invasion of privacy.

"

The analyst Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies was thus doubtful vis-a-vis the advertising insert of the social network which assures to want to "defend small companies".

“Except that's not the case!

», Tweeted the expert.

“#Facebook stands up to Apple to retain the ability to collect data and generate income.

"

  • IOS

  • Personal data

  • Facebook

  • Apple

  • By the Web