It has been a while since two giants, Facebook and Apple have been in a tussle for user privacy issues. Apple has taken some steps in the past regarding privacy settings that have hurt Facebook.
It has been a while since two giants, Facebook and Apple have been in a tussle for user privacy issues. Apple has taken some steps in the past regarding privacy settings that have hurt Facebook. The latter thinks Apple only cares about profits and the privacy angle has been highlighted to subdue its competition. A report by The Wall Street Journal has said that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his team to take action and “inflict pain” on the Cupertino-based company.
Citing Dani Lever, spokesperson for Facebook, the report noted that “the choice between personalised services and privacy was a false trade off.” Facebook is providing both and is arguing that the new rules by Apple will severely impact people and the consumers, app developers and small businesses can lose out. While Apple claims this change to be about privacy, Facebook is adamant on this being an anticompetitive behaviour.
It is to note that after the Cambridge Analytica scandal back in 2018, Apple CEO, Tim Cook stated that his company will do all to never come in such a position where data of millions of users is compromised. To this, Zuckerberg called Cook’s comments ‘glib’ and false. Apple’s new policy is such that the use of private data will be limited and if applications like Facebook want to process the data, it will have to seek permission, which Apple believes is crucial to protect user privacy.
Meanwhile, Facebook also ran full-page ads in US newspapers that criticized Apple’s new policy reiterating that small business owners will suffer as they will not be able to advertise properly on Facebook. While Zuckerberg has decided to ‘incite pain,’ it is still unclear what exactly does he mean by that. The company also made it stance clear that this is not a personal matter.
