The Privacy Battle Between Apple and Facebook Has Intensified
The battle for providing a better privacy policy, which started out as a paltry affair, is slowly turning out to be an acrimonious battle between the two giant technological companies. And, prima facie, it is safe to say that Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg do not care about each other’s survival.
Well, if someone asks who are the leaders of the technological industry of the planet Earth, then only two names come to the picture, and it is neither Google nor Vivo or Samsung. Yes, the leaders are Facebook and Apple. And, while they are both a household name, their appearance and modus operandi is certainly miles away from each other. The latter made staggering yearly affluence of $275B (approximately) last year courtesy of its well-known tech products such as iPhones, Mac, iPads, and other things. Meanwhile, Facebook does not sell a lot of physical products, but their presence in digital media is of a big horse, and they have accumulated $86 billion from targeted online campaigns only.
However, there is one aspect of their rivalry which meets them head-on and has engendered an acrimonious war of words between the top men of each organization. That aspect is the privacy of the users who purchase their products in anticipation that their needs and requirements will be taken care of by the two companies. And, undeniably, one of the primary needs is privacy, for it cannot be compromised.
Recently, Apple has released new operating system updates known as iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, which has given a heavy blow to Facebook and the company’s advertising domain. The latest software rolled out by Apple with ordinary designations (iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5) might seem harmless for Facebook at first glance, but it has become obvious now that Apple has embedded a new program in which the app developers need to ask permission of users before monitoring the activities of users on the web and Apple App Store for their own benefit.
Well, from the start, it had started out as an insignificant quarrel between two rich companies competing with each other for monopoly. However, the acrimonious battle has intensified, fueled by anti-monopolistic and philosophical considerations, and sort of taken the form of sensation in Silicon Valley. The Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Tim Cook, has raised his guns on Facebook and has shed no squirms over the fact that privacy is an undeniable human right. On the other hand, Facebook has tried to shape the narrative into rich versus poor and have said that Apple’s policies are going to benefit no one other than themselves, and resisting the business plans will hurt small developers and entrepreneurs.
Facebook has responded to the whole debate courtesy of a blog post that they have shared on their social media handles and have said that the commencement of any big or small enterprise originates from an idea. And, the use of personalized ads is a powerful tool to realize those ideas, and Apple’s decision to put restrictions on personalized ads will impact all the growing businesses in a negative way. Facebook has hit back at Apple and has said that their decision will essentially derive small companies an essential component for growth.
The whole Apple franchise led by Tim Cook was quick to respond, and in the early part of this month, Cook came out and gave an interview to New York Times in which he negated all the claims made by Facebook against his company. Cook refuted all Facebook’s accusations and called it a “flimsy argument.” He advised small businesses while attacking Facebook that it is possible for every business to make a ton of money from digital marketing by refraining from tracking people without their consent.
The skirmish of words continued intensely for the entire day on Monday, with the users from both parties debating intensely for the need for privacy on Twitter. And, the official sniping was ceaseless as well. Facebook released a copy of the alert, which it is planning to release to the users explaining to them that Apple requires the alert as part of their latest privacy modularity. Apple was quick to respond again and unveiled a video on YouTube that their fight is only against those developers that store data from the users without their consent and more than they actually need for their business to thrive.
The bitter acrimony between the leading franchises of the technological industry is not the first instance. The need for privacy was first highlighted by persecuted whistleblower Edward Snowden and the whole mishap in the 2016 elections caused by the Donald Trump campaign fueled by a now-abolished organization called Cambridge Analytica as well as Facebook. It has caused a large uproar in the technological industry, with several globally proliferating companies such as Apple striving to establish themselves as the caretaker of privacy. Apple has tried to sell its privacy policy for quite a while now. Apple has always tried to show how it is different in the industry where several companies strive on their digital campaigns based on surveillance. Apple takes special care in highlighting their streamlined policies for security and user-enabled anonymity of their products.
Apple has also released a tracking device called Apple AirTags at the “Spring Loaded” event, which took place last Tuesday, and has claimed that the product will operate on encrypted communication, and Apple will have no idea where the users and their products are.
The name Facebook and privacy exploitation are not breaking news as the tech giant has been a subject of intense criticisms and government organizations for their irresponsible handling of data and have also been thoroughly investigated and interrogated over the suspicion of the massive scandals.
Apple’s disliking of Facebook is not new. During a presentation in 2018, Apple showed off a Screen Time feature in which they showed how people are refraining from using their Facebook social media handle, taking a massive jibe at Facebook. During that time, which is around the same when the scandal of Cambridge Analytica broke out, Apple also unveiled their Safari browser, which massively jeopardized user-tracking from the prevalent Facebook “Like” buttons.
It is imperative to also realize the fact that Tim Cook might also have some competitive bias against Facebook because, as the facts reveal to us, he hasn’t tried much in terms of creating a cooperative and understanding relationship between Apple and Facebook. And certainly, not as much as Steve Jobs had nearly a decade ago. Jobs had shared a great professional bond and mutual trust with Mark Zuckerberg around the time when Facebook was reaching the peak of its business glory.
A biographer of Steve Jobs named Walter Isaacson revealed the fact that Mark Zuckerberg was one of the few people Steve Jobs greatly admired in Silicon Valley.
The New York Times also shared their view on Monday’s article and said that Tim Cook has a very strong opinion against Facebook’s business policy and hasn’t shied away from sharing the fact that a massive part of their business model is untenable. Cook had also advised Facebook a long time ago when the Cambridge Analytica scandal had come to light that Facebook should delete all the user data, and they should come out clean.
The acrimony does not seem to die out soon, and it would be interesting to see how other players of the game such as Google, Samsung, and Microsoft respond to this.
Source: The Privacy Battle Between Apple and Facebook Has Intensified
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