Apple's Privacy Measures to Cost Facebook $10 Billion in 2022

MacRumors said:


Facebook has said measures being taken by Apple on iOS that make it harder for platforms and apps to track users across other apps and websites will cost its business $10 billion in 2022.

tim-cook-mark-zuckerberg.jpg

Facebook yesterday reported $33.67 billion in revenue, and while higher than expected, earnings per share were shy of analyst expectations. Facebook, renamed to Meta, also offered lower guidance for the first quarter of 2022, saying it would be expecting around $27 to $29 billion in revenue, short of $30 billion expectations (via CNBC).

As it has done in the past, Facebook shifted blame for its weaker performance during the past quarter onto steps being taken by Apple to improve user privacy. Most notably, Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which requires apps to ask users for permission before tracking them across other apps and websites, is negatively impacting Facebook's business, the company's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, claimed during the earnings call.


The impacts of Apple's privacy measures will represent more significant challenges to Facebook's business in the next quarter, according to Facebook's chief financial officer, David Wehner. "And we believe the impact of iOS overall as a headwind on our business in 2022 is on the order of $10 billion, so it's a pretty significant headwind for our business," said Wehner.

Wehner also went on to accuse Apple of favoring Google in its privacy policy. Wehner said that ATT exempts browsers from asking users for permission to track them across other apps and websites, therefore allowing browsers like Chrome to be more effective in tracking users for personalized ad purposes.

Wehner accused Apple of favoring Google's Ad Search since "Apple continues to take billions of dollars a year from Google Search ads, [so] incentive clearly exists for this policy discrepancy to continue."
Daily active users (DAUs) also took a hit in the past quarter, with Facebook reporting for the first time on record a drop in the number of daily users using its platform. DAUs stood at 1.93 billion in the final quarter of 2021, lower than 1.95 billion from the previous quarter. Still, Wehner said during the company's earnings call that DAUs were up 5% year-over-year.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously shifted his outlook on Apple's ATT framework, initially saying it would hurt Facebook but later saying it could benefit the company in the long term.

Article Link: Apple's Privacy Measures to Cost Facebook $10 Billion in 2022
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For a company that promotes division and hate, I applaud this loss. I find it crazy that people are still on FB despite how ****** it is. As a user, you’re basically a commodity for FB.
 
“And given that Apple continues to take billions of dollars a year from Google Search ads, the incentive clearly exists for this policy discrepancy to continue.”
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This is the part that annoyed me the most. They really can’t let people realize there is literally no downside to giving people choice, so they have to push the narrative that Google paying Apple is why they implemented a feature that hurts them.
 
Our reprehensible business model is being undermined by the user’s right to privacy!

Decreasing ad targeting accuracy? I doubt it, it is already laughably bad. Google, for example, seems to think that I am a pensioner with arthritis, that I am at risk of shingles and that I have a newborn baby.

For the record, I am not retired, I do not have arthritis, I am not at risk of shingles and I most definitely do not have a newborn baby!
 
polyphenol said:
The point that comes across so strongly is that Meta/fb seem to assume (then demand) a right to track users.

That they have been able to do so for so long is the only basis for any such claim. A bit like a person who assaults their spouse every day and are then told to stop. They might rage at the injustice of having change their behaviour, but it never was acceptable.
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To paraphrase Vizzini, "You're trying to kidnap {recover for users} that which I rightfully stole."
 
JMacHack said:
Also I’m curious when companies will realize that internet advertising isn’t worth the amount of money spent.

There has to be trillions spent on getting ****** pop up ads or banner ads for people to ignore on every website, autoplay videos, etc. I highly doubt the return on investment is that high.
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This post is hilarious. You believe that you are smarter than all companies spending trillions on advertising. As if those companies don’t have thousands upon thousands of people determining how they should invest their money already.

You genuinely believe that you are smarter than everyone else. If you’re not a billionaire, then something is wrong with you.
 
In my opinion, FB needs to be a paid for product.
I listen to Spotify for free. $10/month … No ads!
On the other side of the coin, Apple rakes in money hand over fist.
They don’t seem to care just how much and how fast the money comes in.
The difference I see between Apple and FB is honesty.
Tim Cook does care about the customers.
Just don’t stop the money flow.
Mark is educated beyond his intelligence and doesn’t realize the monster he’s created.
I don’t use any social media.
I don’t like being told what to do.
My iPad makes the rules. Worse case scenario, I won’t get any Apple product that tells me what to do again.
People complain about Google. I am just fine with them.
They are in the advertising business and we all know that.
For me it could be an end to Apple, Microsoft and even Android.
The Chromebase from HP is very attractive to me.
Oh, and I was using DuckDuckGo before it was cool.
 
Who cares about Facebook. They are the worst kind of business for the Internet, especially for democracies. Their existence is based on clickbait. Their "algorithm" is designed to spread misinformation in every way they could imagine.
 
dba415 said:
This post is hilarious. You believe that you are smarter than all companies spending trillions on advertising. As if those companies don’t have thousands upon thousands of people determining how they should invest their money already.

You genuinely believe that you are smarter than everyone else. If you’re not a billionaire, then something is wrong with you.
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Appeal to authority.
 
laptech said:
The eventual problem Apple and others will have in changing their practices with advertisers is in that how long is it going to be before advertisers start making court claims against Apple and others for interefering with a legitimate business in that they are preventing them from doing legitimate business because as far as I am aware, compaines are not allowed to interfere with the way another company goes about it's legitmate business. Yes I am sure the majority of us can't stand the way advertisers go about their business but at the end of the day, like it or not it is still a legitimate business practice.
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Wrong. Apple isn’t inhibiting those business from tracking me. Apple is giving me the right to inhibit those businesses from tracking me. All Apple did was develop software to notify me when an app wants to track me, whereas before, they didn’t even ask, they just tracked us.
 
jimimac71 said:
In my opinion, FB needs to be a paid for product.
I listen to Spotify for free. $10/month … No ads!
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Social media, forums, etc. rely on community usage/activity to survive and the best way to build an active community is to offer access for "free". It could be difficult for social media sites like FB do survive long-term on a paid subscription model.

In the case of Spotify, the product is primarily the music library whereas with FB the product is access to a massively large community and the various ways to communicate, do business, etc. within that community. Requiring people to pay to use FB could result in a significant drop in community size. This would therefore make FB that much less appealing and cause more and more people who may have initially been willing to pay to now decide to discontinue their subscription. Before you know it, POOF...no more Facebook.

To me, the issue with Meta/FB is not its free usage/targeted advertising business model but rather how it filters and manipulates some of the user content on its platforms. However, that's a whole different discussion.
 
Would the new push in the us to get sideloading will end this feature for us users ? If Facebook only allows side loading would they still need to follow the App Store rules ? Won’t be surprised to see Facebook lobby this new bill ….
 
persuasiveghost said:
I think it is working very well. After implementing Apple's feature and taking some steps with my laptop including switching to Firefox full time, I haven't seen targeted ads at all on iPhone or Mac. My ads seem to default to hormone replacement therapy and many different services for...transitioning.
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I can't bring myself to switch to Firefox as my primary browser due to all benefits of Safari... How much work did it take for you? Passwords, etc.
 
While you all can get a good laugh at FaceBook it should be noted that Apple has been pretty evil as well. Behind your backs they have setup a defacto mesh network (for the Air Tag) running off Bluetooth and such a network is pure evil. BTW, you can not disable your phone from participating in the mesh network.
 
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