EFF says Facebook’s criticism of change of follow-up in favor of Apple’s privacy is “laughable”

Facebook’s recent criticism of Apple over an upcoming monitoring-related privacy measure is “laughable,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit organization that advocates for civil liberties in the digital world.

Facebook has claimed that Apple’s new opt-in tracking policy will hurt small businesses that will benefit from personalized advertising, but the EFF believes Facebook’s campaign against Apple is really about “what Facebook can lose if its users learn more about what exactly he and other data brokers are behind the scenes, “noting that Facebook has” built a massive empire around the concept of tracking everything you do. ”

Early next year, iPhone and iPad app developers will need to ask users for permission to track their activity through apps and websites owned by other companies for advertising purposes. customized. Specifically, users will receive a request to allow or deny tracking when needed when opening apps on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

According to the EFF, several studies have shown that most of the money earned from specific advertising does not reach app developers and instead goes to third-party data intermediaries such as Facebook, Google and lesser-known companies.

“Facebook is made public in this case as protection of small businesses, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” the EFF said. “Facebook has locked them into a situation where they are forced to be cunning and adverse to their own customers. The answer cannot be to defend this broken system at the expense of the privacy and control of its own users.”

Facebook has argued that Apple’s move “is not about privacy, it’s about profits,” and said Apple’s new policy will leave many apps and websites with no choice but to start charging subscription fees or add more purchase options from the app to meet deadlines. , in turn, increases App Store revenue. Facebook said this scenario will make the Internet “much more expensive” and reduce “high-quality free content.”

“We don’t agree with Apple’s approach and solution, although we have no choice but to show Apple’s indication,” Facebook said. “If we don’t, they will block Facebook from the App Store, which would only hurt more people and companies who trust our services. We can’t take that risk on behalf of the millions of companies that use our platform to grow . “

In response to Facebook, Apple expressed that users deserve control and transparency. “We believe this is a simple matter of defending our users,” Apple said, adding that “users should know when their data is collected and shared among other apps and websites, and they should have the option to allow it or not. “

The EFF applauded Apple for its shift in favor of privacy, considering it a big step forward.

“When a company does the right thing for its users, EFF will adhere to it, in the same way that we will confront companies that do harm,” the organization concluded. “Here, Apple is right and Facebook is not.”