The largest social network in the world, Facebook has started to show its desperation as the war with Apple intensifies with the recent announcement of the iOS14 launch. This new update will allow Apple users to get educated about how Facebook is tracking them, and this will make it easier for them to opt-out of it.
Apple has slowly been pushing back on the amount of data collected by different apps. Apple does not support the notion of data collection without the consent of the user. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple has been slowly moving in this direction to let its users know how much of their data is tracked.
An update to iOS14 is planned in the coming months which will enable Apple users to control what data the apps can collect and if they do not approve, they can switch it off at their will. Once the update has been installed, iPhone users will be greeted by Apple in which their consent will be asked whether they want to allow Facebook to collect their data or not.
Facebook has fiercely retaliated to this new update. Although this move from Apple has been welcomed by various privacy groups, Facebook has called it an assault on business.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that this move will change the internet world for the worse. It will make the internet more expensive and will hugely reduce the availability of free content. Facebook has claimed that Apple’s privacy policy will invalidate the internet services. The new update in iOS14 will present a false façade in front of the users. It intends to give preference to Apple services and products and target them through advertising under the pretense of a privacy breach.
It is highly unlikely that Apple will back down from its much-anticipated update. Facebook has been under the knife quite a few times because of the privacy breach of its users. Recently, it halted an update in WhatsApp– another app owned by Facebook. It stirred an uproar among the users when the social media giant claimed that the private conversations will be shared with other data-collecting websites.
Facebook is running out of time. Mark Zuckerberg must have seen it all coming. Instead of debating with Apple on its privacy policy, it should remodel its business plan to compete with this new challenge. “Move fast and break things” was the official motto of Facebook for years. It was engraved in the company’s DNA. Yet sometimes moving so fast can break you down.
Facebook is in a desperate position right now, and it needs to come up with new policies to combat the ongoing tussle, else, it will lose its credibility as well as the market position.
