Facebook has been attacking Apple over its new privacy policies that make it harder for advertisers to track users across apps and websites. The social media giant has taken out full-page ads and in-app banners decrying the new iOS privacy features. However, it seems that not all of Facebook’s employees feel the same way.
Facebook believes that the new privacy features are going to hurt small and medium businesses and according to a BuzzFeed News report, not all Facebook employees believe that.
“It feels like we are trying to justify doing a bad thing by hiding behind people with a sympathetic message,” one engineer wrote in response to an internal post shared by Facebook ad chief Dany Levy.
Facebook held and internal talk to explain their stand on the campaign and before that employees asked or voted on questions about the “potential consequences” of the attacks.
“Aren’t we worried that our stance protecting [small- and medium-sized businesses] will backfire as people see it as ‘FB protecting their own business’ instead?” read one question.
Another question pointed out that Facebook’s current efforts could be “bad PR,” since people actually want privacy and the company’s agenda against it “will be viewed with cynicism”. Another Facebook employee asked how the company could pick a message that appeared “less self serving”.
Facebook’s VP of product marketing told employees in his answer that the company has been “really clear” about the effects of Apple’s privacy features, including the effects on Facebook’s bottom line.
“We’re not trying to sweep that under the rug. We are, you know, a profitable, big company and we’re going to get through this and adapt our products and so forth. But the real folks that are going to get hit by this are small businesses, and that’s why we made them the focus of the message,” Mudd wrote.
Responding to employees asking why Facebook didn’t choose to be more transparent and convince users to opt in for tracking, Mudd explained that it was “Apple’s marketing working and convincing you to scapegoat us so they can decide how the internet should work — even beyond their devices”.
“I’m an optimist who works in technology because I think tech can be a lever for democratising access and giving opportunity. Including for businesses. And if you think this is going to stop with personalized ads . . . well, then I disagree,” Mudd said.
The main feature that Facebook is concerned about is a change that makes “the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) tag opt in on an app-by-app basis. Facebook says that the feature could impact ad revenue by as much as 60%”.
Facebook’s attacks on Apple have also been criticised by other technology companies and industry groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The anti-tracking feature was initially expected to launch with iOS 14, but Apple delayed the rollout to give developers more time to prepare. It’s now slated to release in early 2021.
