Facebook says Apple iOS 14 privacy update limits ads targeting

Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 is set to include privacy features that prevent companies from tracking users across different apps – and Facebook is not taking move lightly.

The social media is criticizing the changes, claiming its ability to target ads to iPhone users ‘will be limited’ and significantly impact its revenue.

Facebook uses its Audience Network to link users’ identities to their activities in third-party apps in order to serve them personalized ads, which is also used by other companies to generate revenue.

The shift, according to the firm, would cut revenues on iOS by 50 percent – and it may force Facebook to pull Audience Network altogether.

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Facebook’s argument is a result of iOS 14 including blockers that prohibits sites from monitoring smartphone owners using their unique identifier (IDFA) without their permission.

‘This is not a change we want to make, but unfortunately Apple’s updates to iOS 14 have forced this decision,’ Facebook shared in a blog post.

‘We know this may severely impact publishers’ ability to monetize through Audience Network on iOS 14, and, despite our best efforts, may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14 in the future.’

Facebook’s Audience Network business is an in-app advertising network that connects users’ Facebook identities with their activities on third-party apps – allowing companies to serve targeted ads.

However, this is just a sliver of the social media firm’s revenue stream.

The company makes most of its money by showing advertisements in its main app and Instagram.

Facebook is not just going into battle for itself, but also standing strong for other companies who rely on its Audience Network to generate their own revenue through ads.

‘We understand that iOS 14 will hurt many of our developers and publishers at an already difficult time for businesses,’ the firm shared in the blog.

‘We work with more than 19,000 developers and publishers from around the globe and in 2019 we paid out billions of dollars.’

‘Many of these are small businesses that depend on ads to support their livelihood.’

Facebook notes that it would lose over 50 percent in its Audience Network publisher revenue if personalization is to be removed from mobile install campaigns.

‘While the iOS 14 release schedule has not been announced, we plan to release the Audience Network SDK beforehand and will provide an update as soon as these dates are confirmed,’ Facebook wrote.

Apple is set to release its new operating sometime this fall.

The Cupertino company has seen its fair share of entanglements in the past few months.

This month, Apple had pulled Epic Games popular Fornite from its App Store due to the game maker violating in app payment guidelines.

And in the same day, Epic served Apple a lawsuit.

The recent update of the fiasco comes from a US federal judge who has has granted Epic Games a temporary restraining order against Apple which will prevent the iPhone maker from cutting off Epic’s computer graphics software Unreal Engine.

The Unreal Engine and its license is relied upon by hundreds of app developers, not just Epic, and would cause enormous disruption in the gaming industry.

The judge ruled that, as the dispute is between Fortnite, Epic’s marquee game, and Apple, there is no basis to remove access to other branches of its business, which are used by numerous parties who are not involved in the litigation.