Apple’s iOS 14 privacy feature could benefit Facebook, says Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (PC-Facebook)

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was until recently opposed to Apple’s iOS 14 privacy feature because it limits advertisement tracking, is now saying that it could benefit his company.

However, according to a CNBC report, the Facebook head said in a Clubhouse room on March 18 that: “It is possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms.”

Once this feature rolls out, developers will have to seek permission before tracking any device advertising identifier, that is, the Identifier for Advertiser (IDFA) tag.

iPhone users will be opted out of tracking by default, which means, companies like Facebook will no longer have access to key metrics such as view-through conversions – a feature that helps identify users who purchase goods after viewing. However, users can manually change settings options if they wish to allow services to leverage IDFA data.

Meanwhile, Facebook has been preparing for the looming data privacy changes by launching more commerce products, such as Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops. These will help brands list and sell their products directly on Facebook and Instagram.