2 years agoA new privacy feature in Apple’s iOS 14.5 requires apps to request permission to track you. And Facebook isn’t happy about it. WSJ’s Joanna Stern put Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook into the ring to explain why this software update has kicked off a tech slugfest.
My take: Stern has a knack for keeping it simple.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
on Chinese Apple resellers knock $125 off iPhone 14 'A few hours before this story came out a report about Foxconn’s January sales was published. This is from Reuter’s…'
on Stone Fox Capital: Sell Apple immediately, wait for a spring thaw '“Stoned Fox Das Kapital” has been writing nothing but negative stories about Apple each and every quarter. As do most…'
on Chinese Apple resellers knock $125 off iPhone 14 'The 128g Pro is &US999 in the US. That’s 6,787 yuan at todays exchange rate. Daigou could be buying US…'
on Stone Fox Capital: Sell Apple immediately, wait for a spring thaw 'It’s called Apple-hater click-bait. There are hordes of unreasoning Apple-haters out there, so writing anything negative is an easy way…' on Steve Jobs' revenge '@ Fred: “No one can compete. Despite Apple’s lower market share, their overall chip economics out-scales everyone.” Is Apple being…'
on Chinese Apple resellers knock $125 off iPhone 14 'Would the change in exchange rate in part justify an Apple price drop in China?' on Chinese Apple resellers knock $125 off iPhone 14 'Is this really “Apple’s online store”? It’s China, after all. Any merchants there have to go through the government.'
on Steve Jobs' revenge 'Upvoted Gregg and Sacto Joe. Time to re-introduce my “magic carpet ride”, (Steppenwolfe) metaphor for Apple Silicon. The entire ecosystem…' on Chinese Apple resellers knock $125 off iPhone 14 '“…China was one of the few countries where Apple didn’t raise the iPhone 14’s price…” I believe the Chinese link…'
I remember those: “Rock em Sock em” robots. That was a fun game. Probably too violent for this current generation.
That’s because iOS users are (on average) wealthier and spend more online than do Android users. It also explains why Google spends so much just to be the DEFAULT browser on iOS.
Facebook has no such capability (buy preferential treatment) and must rely on 3rd party captured data for its advertising business.
In my opinion, it won’t be the loss of generic user data that will be Facebook’s undoing, it will the loss in the targeted value of that data, as it becomes more and more generic. Google won’t have that problem as it purchases access to that data as the default search engine on iOS devices.
This situation, whereby Google’s advertising model becomes more dominant, will last until Congress determines Google search is a monopoly and that Google, using the wealth that monopoly generates to deny competitive entry by smaller firms.
I only use Facebook to track my daughter’s accomplishments, and alternate between Duck Duck Go and Bing for search. I can see no difference in their respective search results.
But I find Apple’s advertising on the phone, particularly in News, to be almost as annoying. Add to that the listing for News+ articles that are not useful if you don’t have a News+ subscription, and News is probably the most annoying Apple app ever.
In the last 3 months during this national tempestuous discussion FB stock has catapulted $50 dollars higher, or roughly around 16%. The markets seem not to care. There-in lies your answer. Also, as consumers move more to shopping on-line the consumer is going to desire targeted ads to mitigate the need to go searching for retail items of their liking & choice. The FB model enhances that aspect of consumer shopping. Consumers long ago showed a willingness to capitulate privacy for subsequent rewards of “freebies.” It’s the American way of life.
When I have decided that I need something, I am quite happy to search for (reviews of) those things that I might buy. That is the power of the internet for the consumer.
Why would anyone voluntarily hand the power to initiate a transaction to the retailer?
I don’t respond well to being interrupted by people cold calling me, whether it is on my doorstep, on my landline or in an app that I am using for some other purpose.
I will be very happy to select the:
“no tracking from any app”
option in System Preferences.
When I have decided that I need something, I am quite happy to search for (reviews of) those things that I might buy. That is the power of the internet for the consumer.
Why would anyone voluntarily hand the power to initiate a transaction to the retailer?”
Two reasons:
1. Many people are not sane.
2. Laziness.
I tend to agree with Jerry on this. As my Dad would say, “It’s the nature of the beast.”
Call it “FOMO” — “Fear Of Missing Out”.
I believe that those who gravitate towards inserting Facebook squarely into their lives are such a beast, sucking on the breast of being connected and involved and generally don’t care what happens behind the scenes in the great ether with their data OR being targeted. A “bring it on” mentality.
A variation of rather getting junk mail than getting no mail at all. Getting some means your “a somebody”, getting none means your “a nobody”. One a confirmation, the other a rejection.
I might well be more sympathetic to the notion of ‘targeted ads’ if (a) I wasn’t getting deluged by all the internet advertising in general and (b) the signal-to-noise ratio, the amount of ads that were actually relevant, was MUCH higher. Most of what I see is just junk, not just on FB but also on my phone (Apple News, which I really don’t like that much) or on websites (for the ads that get through ad blockers.)
Bravo to Joanna Stern with this video. I had no idea that the tracking methodology was so basically simple…
…and so quietly nefarious.
Put simply, Apple is giving their users a choice. Nothing more, nothing less.
I’ve loved that video comment about privacy from Steve Jobs ever since the moment I saw it first hand. A conviction of universal benefit simply and emphatically stated.
Taken succinctly from the man himself, Tim Cook is merely putting wheels on Jobs’ stated passion.