Apple and Facebook Duke it Out Over Privacy

If you have Apple devices you’ll be getting an ios14 update notice soon, and it will include a new App Tracking Transparency feature that will provide you an option to not allow companies to track your data.

Them's fightin’ words to Facebook. Facebook rakes in about $84 million globally by tracking their users’ whereabouts on the internet so that advertisers can better target likely customers and not waste time or effort on those who would never use a product. It always sounded like a reasonable proposition and most Facebook friends never gave it a second thought.

But data privacy has become a major issue as the European Union implements recent restrictions and California advances their statewide Consumer Privacy Act as a model for others to follow. “I believe New York and one or two other states are very close to following the same model and creating a privacy centric regulation from a statewide standpoint,” says Benjamin Leff, a marketing consultant in Houston who runs Leff Ventures. “It’s great to see companies like Apple and Google finally taking steps forward and providing users with knowledge of what’s being collected.”

Texas has not joined Washington State, New Jersey or New York in following the California model yet, but Apple’s Tim Cook acknowledges that the overabundance of data can be exploited and is bowing to building pressure to provide protections for consumers. It will be up to consumers to decide how much of an invasion of their privacy they are willing to surrender.

Facebook is expected to jab back with a right hook pop-up that allows Apple users to opt back in.

photo: Getty Images


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