Facebook will comply to iOS 14 privacy policy; says personalised ads and user privacy can coexist

Facebook will comply to Apple’s iOS 14 privacy policy. The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant has sent an email to its businesses stating that it disagrees with the upcoming privacy changes. However, it also believes that “personalised ads and user privacy can coexist.”

In an email sent to businesses, Facebook said that the new Apple privacy policy will have “hard-hitting implications across targeting, optimisation, and measuring campaign effectiveness for businesses that advertise on mobile devices and across the web.” The social media giant further said that the privacy feature will only benefit Apple, while hurting the industry, reported iMore.

Facebook further said that it has no choice but to agree to Apple’s privacy policy. If not, Apple could block Facebook and its other apps from the App Store, bringing further harm to the businesses and users that rely on its services. The company, now taking a partial u-turn, said that personalised ads and user privacy can coexist.

The iOS 14 privacy feature that Facebook is criticising is called App Tracking Transparency. The feature displays the type of user data that apps collect.

Facebook, earlier, had posted newspaper ads criticising Apple for its new iOS 14 privacy policy. It had said that the new Apple privacy rules could be devastating for small businesses. “While limiting how personalised ads can be used does impact larger companies like us, these changes will be devastating to small businesses adding to the many challenges they face right now,” the Facebook ad read.

Apple, in response, said that it is simply standing up for its users and that they should be aware when their data is being collected. Users also should have a choice to allow apps to collect their data.