In a year where the COVID-19 pandemic and regional lockdowns are hammering small businesses, it’s a timely message, if a self-serving one. Presumably, if users were given such a choice, droves of them would opt out of Facebook’s creepy tracking. The company took out ads in the 16 December 2020 editions of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, proclaiming that the company is “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.” (Of note given the high profile of the ad-its headline incorrectly uses a prime mark instead of an apostrophe.)įacebook claims that by giving users a choice in whether Facebook can track their activities, Apple is hurting small businesses, which depend on the personalized ads that Facebook offers. With Apple’s deadline looming, Facebook is turning up the heat. In its recent third-quarter investor call, the company spooked investors by calling the new feature a significant “headwind.” The feature was originally set to be mandatory for third-party developers with iOS 14, but Apple delayed the mandate until 2021 after receiving pushback from Facebook and others.įacebook’s response can best be described as “panic.” Facebook estimates that the end of tracking could slash ad revenues in half. While all of this has been going on, a war has been brewing between Apple and Facebook over an announced iOS 14 feature that would require explicit user permission before app developers could track users across apps or websites, or access a device’s unique identifier. In November, Apple responded to the criticism in part by announcing that it would halve the App Store fees for smaller developers (see “ Apple Drops App Store Commission to 15% for Small Developers,” 18 November 2020).īut controversies surrounding the App Store are far from over.Apple: Outlining Complaints about the App Store,” 13 August 2020). In August, Epic Games, maker of one of the most popular iOS games, rebelled against Apple’s in-app purchase policies, leading to its ouster from the App Store and a messy legal battle (see “ Developers v.
In July, Congress grilled Tim Cook over App Store policies (see “ A Quick Rundown of Big Tech’s Showdown with Congress,” 31 July 2020).BraveĪll things considered, Apple has had a great year, but it has been a rough ride for the App Store business: #1657: A deep dive into the innovative Arc Web browserĪpp Store Wars: Facebook vs.#1658: Rapid Security Responses, NYPD and industry standard AirTag news, Apple's Q2 2023 financials.#1659: Exposure notifications shut down, cookbook subscription service, alarm notification type proposal, Explain XKCD.#1660: OS updates for sports and security, Drobo in bankruptcy, why TidBITS doesn't cover rumors.#1661: Mimestream app for Gmail, auto-post WordPress headlines to Twitter and Mastodon, My Photo Stream shutting down.
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