Could Apple’s new iPhone operating system really halve Facebook’s revenue? I hope so…
Apple has decided to wait until early 2021 before introducing iPhone and iPad privacy settings that will give users much more control over how their personal information is tracked, so as to give developers more time to make further changes and prepare for them.
In short, iOS 14 users will be able to decide whether to allow apps to monitor our online activities, and one imagines that the vast majority of us will say no thanks. Great news, but why have we had to wait so long to be able to do so? What Apple is saying is that until now, any app we installed on our phones and tablets was systematically spying on us, surveilling what we were doing not just within the confines of the app, but clocking any website we visited, as though this were somehow normal and acceptable. I don’t know about you, but I prefer my internet to offer the same kinds of privacy guarantees as real life does.
Apple’s new operating system attempts to provide those guarantees. The code that identifies your device (IDFA) will not be shared with advertisers if you specifically say that you don’t want it to be, something that, logically, is of great concern to companies like Facebook that make a living from advertising. Unsurprisingly, Facebook and its empire of evil has accused Apple of exercising a…
