Apple introduced a controversial privacy feature to the iPhone last year, dubbed “Application Tracking Transparency”. It allows users to block apps from tracking their digital activities on third-party platforms to avoid targeted ads.
According to a recent report, several large companies like Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter lost around $ 10 billion because of Apple’s privacy feature.
The report (paid) comes from from the Financial Times and quotes advertising experts talking about the situation. According to the report, it is Facebook that suffered the most from Apple’s transparency in app tracking, due to its size and the fact that its income depends mainly on advertising. In fact, Facebook itself funded an in-depth study to prove Apple’s incompetence earlier this year and even tried to encourage users to grant tracking permissions for its apps on their iPhones.
Facebook notably criticized the move by posting a full-page newspaper ad, and thanks to the FT report, we now know why company executives were so frustrated.
« Some of the platforms that have been hit the hardest – but especially Facebook – have to rebuild their machinery from scratch in the aftermath of ATTSaid Eric Seufert, ad-tech consultant at the Financial Times. “My belief is that it takes at least a year to build a new infrastructure. New tools and frameworks should be developed from scratch and thoroughly tested before being deployed to large numbers of users“, he added.
Applications must reinvent themselves
The report also states that Snap “behaved the worst as a percentage of its activity“, Because its advertising is mainly linked to smartphones, especially iPhones. This makes sense since Snapchat is only available on mobile platforms and not on Windows or macOS. Thus, social networking companies now rely on other means to develop their business through advertising. Some apps have been found forcing users to allow permission tracking by denying basic functionality.
Apple’s new policy will force social platforms and other apps to be more creative with their ads. Whether it’s focusing on Android devices or investing in Apple’s advertising business, they’ll need to find another source of income that doesn’t involve following people on their iPhones.
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