Today, Facebook has begun testing prompts for iPhone and iPad users that defend the importance of being tracked by the social network for the benefit of small businesses using their advertising tools.
The test is in response to Apple’s plan to require users to sign up for IDFA (Advertiser ID) tracking for all iOS, iPadOS and tvOS apps, starting with new software updates coming in the spring. are expected.
According to CNBC, Facebook will prevent the required pop-up from Apple with its own pop-up on the affected devices. Facebook’s message aims to convince users not to unsubscribe from tracking.
Apple had already announced that, with upcoming software releases, apps that use IDFAs to track users across apps and websites should show a popup saying, for example, “Facebook would like to be allowed to track you through apps and websites that owned by other companies. ”
That prompt will also be presented with a brief blurb from the app maker to defend the case directly in this confirmation window (Facebook goes “This will allow Facebook to give you a better ad experience”). This is followed by two choices: “Don’t ask app to track” and “Allow tracking”.
The Facebook app on iOS and iPadOS will show this required dialog, but Facebook is testing another message that will pop up before users see it. The copy obtained by CNBC states:
Allow Facebook to use your app and website activity?
- Get more personalized ads
- Support companies that rely on advertising to reach customers
In order to provide a better advertising experience, we require permission to use future activities that other apps and websites send us from this device. This does not give us access to new types of information.
The sample language we have here may not be final, and Facebook may test multiple versions of the post to determine which approaches are most effective in getting users opted in for tracking.
Facebook previously bought a full-page newspaper ad with similar posts, claiming the change would be especially negative for local businesses struggling during the pandemic. “In addition to damaging apps and websites, many in the small business community say this change will be devastating for them too, at a time when they face enormous challenges,” it said. “Small businesses deserve to be heard. We stand up for Apple for our small business customers and our communities.”
Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors during the company’s quarterly earnings call that they can expect lower ad revenue from the company soon as a result of Apple’s policy change, as many, if not most, users will forgo when they receive the get choice. He also claimed that Apple’s move to require users to opt-in for IDFA tracking is one of many examples of Apple engaging in anti-competitive and monopolistic practices.
That same week, a report was published in The Information detailing Facebook’s plan to file an antitrust suit against Apple on the matter, as well as the alleged preferential status that Apple attributes to its iMessage platform (a competitor to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp from Facebook) on iOS and iPadOS.
Also that same week, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, delivered a keynote address at a data privacy conference in Brussels, claiming that companies like Facebook “are built on deceptive users, on data exploitation, on choices that aren’t choices at all” , and that business models like Facebook’s bear the costs of “polarization, lost trust and, yes, violence.”
Apple plans to require sign-in notification sometime this spring in all apps that use IDFAs, and Facebook plans to respect iOS and iPadOS users’ choices once they are made – at least as long as Apple’s policies aren’t right . destroyed in a growing storm of antitrust complaints.