Societal cancer and, now, finally, rightfully beleaguered, Facebook continues whining publicly, with stupendous tone deafness, about how Apple gave users much greater control of their own privacy, enabling them to choose not to be tracked across apps, which hurts outfits like Facebook that had grown fat by charging advertisers more to show targeted ads to helpless users consigned to having their privacy trampled by the second, like hapless Android settlers are even today.
Suzanne Vranica, Patience Haggin and Salvador Rodriguez:
Facebook was long one of the surest bets in digital advertising. No longer.
Apple Inc. introduced a privacy feature for mobile devices last year that restricts user tracking… The privacy change is hitting the heart of Meta’s business: its ability to target ads at users with precision and prove to marketers that the ads generate sales. Earlier this month, Meta said it expects a roughly $10 billion hit to sales this year as the result of the Apple change, which requires apps to ask users for permission to track their activity and share it.
The privacy push appears to be the biggest threat to the social-media giant’s once ironclad grip on ad spending by small online businesses and e-commerce companies.
Investor fears about the fallout from Apple’s change are one of the reasons that Meta’s market value has dropped by more than $300 billion since the recent earnings report.Meta said in a written statement… “Apple’s harmful policy is making it harder and more expensive for businesses of all sizes to reach their customers.”