Apple is exploiting features to expand its own advertising, say advertisers
As advertisers complain that Apple's privacy features cut revenues for rivals but not for itself, Apple is now greatly expanding its own ad business and is on a hiring spree.
Apple privacy
Apple has recently been reported to be cutting recruitment overall, or recruiting more selectively, and is said to have laid off all its temporary recruiting staff. Now the Financial Times says that the company is advertising for some 216 new staff to join and almost double the workforce in its advertising business.
The Financial Times says that the figure of 216 comes from Apple's own careers website. The various ads describe how people are being hired in a project that is about "redefining advertising [for a] privacy-centric world."
Most jobs are in the States, but around 27 are in Europe. Then there are 12 in China, 12 in India, 4 in Japan, and 2 in Singapore. The roles include managers, product designers, sales specialists, and data engineers.
Apple has reportedly declined to comment, but did dispute the figure of 216 roles.
David Steinberg, chief executive of Zeta Global, a marketing technology company, told the Financial Times that Apple was being both "brilliant" and "Machiavellian" in its approach to advertising and ad sales rivals.
"They could build out [their advertising business] dramatically," he said, "[and] the 'air cover' is they are protecting the consumer's privacy."
Previously, Apple's has consistently been vocal about the detriment and problems of advertising to users. Tim Cook once went so far as to say Apple won't use advertising to get more money out of users.
"The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer -- if our customer was our product," he said in 2018. "We've elected not to do that."
However, it has always specifically targeted unwanted ads, or ones where marketing companies profile users by tracking them.
This is what the company's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy feature was introduced to do from iOS 14 onwards. Apple's iOS was a boon for advertisers and arguably the privacy problems were originally created by Apple.
ATT has been very effective, with Facebook ultimately reporting a drop in projected revenues of $10 billion, specifically because of it.
Recently, it's been reported that Apple is working to offer more ads in its apps, and in particular within Apple Maps.
Separately, it's recently been predicted that Apple's advertising business could reach $6 billion by 2025. That's a small amount compared to the $209 billion that the Financial Times says Google's ad business earns, but it has also grown from an estimated few hundred million dollars in the late 2010s.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple privacy
Apple has recently been reported to be cutting recruitment overall, or recruiting more selectively, and is said to have laid off all its temporary recruiting staff. Now the Financial Times says that the company is advertising for some 216 new staff to join and almost double the workforce in its advertising business.
The Financial Times says that the figure of 216 comes from Apple's own careers website. The various ads describe how people are being hired in a project that is about "redefining advertising [for a] privacy-centric world."
Most jobs are in the States, but around 27 are in Europe. Then there are 12 in China, 12 in India, 4 in Japan, and 2 in Singapore. The roles include managers, product designers, sales specialists, and data engineers.
Apple has reportedly declined to comment, but did dispute the figure of 216 roles.
David Steinberg, chief executive of Zeta Global, a marketing technology company, told the Financial Times that Apple was being both "brilliant" and "Machiavellian" in its approach to advertising and ad sales rivals.
"They could build out [their advertising business] dramatically," he said, "[and] the 'air cover' is they are protecting the consumer's privacy."
Previously, Apple's has consistently been vocal about the detriment and problems of advertising to users. Tim Cook once went so far as to say Apple won't use advertising to get more money out of users.
"The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer -- if our customer was our product," he said in 2018. "We've elected not to do that."
However, it has always specifically targeted unwanted ads, or ones where marketing companies profile users by tracking them.
This is what the company's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy feature was introduced to do from iOS 14 onwards. Apple's iOS was a boon for advertisers and arguably the privacy problems were originally created by Apple.
ATT has been very effective, with Facebook ultimately reporting a drop in projected revenues of $10 billion, specifically because of it.
Recently, it's been reported that Apple is working to offer more ads in its apps, and in particular within Apple Maps.
Separately, it's recently been predicted that Apple's advertising business could reach $6 billion by 2025. That's a small amount compared to the $209 billion that the Financial Times says Google's ad business earns, but it has also grown from an estimated few hundred million dollars in the late 2010s.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Also of note: Apple app developers get paid less for in-app ads when users opt out of Ad Tracking Transparency. Seriously?
Like another AI article says, Apple isn't (now?) against targeted ads, they're just against anyone but themselves doing so.
There is this from Apple:
Location-Based Ads
If you allow App Store or Apple News to access to your location, Apple’s advertising platform may use the approximate current location of your device to provide you with geographically targeted ads on the App Store and on Apple News.
You can opt out of location-based app functionality including for advertising on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, and either tapping to turn off Location Services or selecting App Store or News from the list of location-aware switches and setting it to Never. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, select Location Services, and deselect either “Enable Location Services” or “News.”
Apple’s advertising platform does not receive location-based information when you turn off Location Services on your device.
Personalized Ads
If Personalized Ads is turned on, Apple’s advertising platform may use your information to serve ads that are more relevant to you. Turning off Personalized Ads will prevent Apple from using this information for ad targeting. It may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you.
You can turn off Personalized Ads on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Privacy > Apple Advertising and tapping to turn off Personalized Ads. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, select Apple Advertising, and deselect Personalized Ads. The Personalized Ads option may be unavailable if you are a minor, have a managed account, or are in a location where Apple does not deliver advertising to its apps.
I expect something similar for ads that might appear in Maps.
Apple doesn't display that message for their own apps because they're not doing that type of tracking. That isn't an antitrust violation.
I'm wondering if a similar split could be used to deliver targeting ads to people. That is, one company called the third-party could hold the "advertising profile" of the end user, and the other company (probably Apple) would hold the user's IP address, much like how Private Relay works. This would mean neither Apple nor the third-party company would know both who the end-user is or what his advertising profile is. Brilliant.
The best part of this idea is that any company, not just Apple, could submit ads to the third-party company and say things like "We want to submit an ad to you that is meant to be targeted at 18-25 year olds." Neither the advertiser nor Apple would be able to identify the identity of the person that the ad is being sent to. Only Apple would know your IP address, but Apple wouldn't see the targeted ad because that would be encrypted (just like DNS traffic is encrypted in Private Relay) or your advertising profile (because that is held in confidence by the third party.)
Facebook would be able to have targeted ads again on Apple platforms, which should make them happy, but they would STILL be unhappy because they don't hold the keys to your identity (a third party holds the advertising profile, but doesn't know who you are either.) That's because Facebook's goal was never targeted advertising, but invading your privacy in every way possible. This will force Facebook to admit they were never after targeting advertising in the first place.
Nobody would object if this system was opt-in, but a privacy proponent like me would be a little concerned if this was forced on all users. I think I might be persuadable that this could work, especially if users were allowed to view and/or delete their own profiles. In fact, I would be very happy to be able to see what information advertisers have on me.
For purposes of discussion, I will call this method "STAM" for "Safe Targeted Advertising Method."
Apple isn’t against ads. They’re against massive data collection.
Advertisers are mad Apple put a stop to their massive surveillance efforts. Apple ads are like walking into a Walmart and seeing promotions. Nothing you did at the Best Buy or Amazon show up and “track” you inside Walmart and nothing you do in Walmart follows you outside Walmart. It’s a “self-contained” advertising system. Tracking isn’t required because ads are related to context, not your history gathered from countless websites (or other sources). Therefore to complain about App Tracking Transparency is asinine. It’s all deflection.
If I go to The App Store I don’t see ads for cars, cologne, sports equipment or anything related to my recent browsing habits. If I search for a video editor I’ll see promoted ads for video editing Apps. Once I leave The App Store and go on social media or other websites I’m not peppered with video editor ads because I searched for one on The App Store.
This is the difference between Apple and Google. Apple ads are simple, akin to magazine ads. They’re served up based on a limited set of data Apple has or you enter (like an App Store search). They’re NOT targeted.
Google has embedded tracking code in literally millions of websites. So does Facebook and others, but Google has the most. Apple doesn’t. Likewise Apple doesn’t have SDKs embedded into Apps for the purpose of gathering usage habits to assist in tracking users and serving ads. Because of this Apple doesn’t need to be included in App Tracking Transparency because Apple doesn’t do targeted ads.
The day Apple starts delivering targeted ads in websites or social media, or starts building trackers into websites for data mining is when you can start complaining.
On the flip side, I don’t want apple to do advertising in apps at all. As Tim said, we pay for the Apple product without ads and I don’t think it improves the experience of the user or helps small developers who can’t afford to advertise. I fear it might start to impact on product and UI design.
From what I read, and the way I understand it, you are INCORRECT that Apple ads aren't targeted at YOU. They don't deny they target you as a matter of fact. What they say is relatively specific: "Apple’s advertising platform does not TRACK you, meaning that it does not link user or device data collected from our apps with user or device data collected from third parties for targeted advertising..."
So first-party tracking is not considered tracking for Apple's privacy purposes, but it still results in targeted ads.
But in the way they group users for targeted ads they are very much like Google (no idea about Facebook), perhaps patterning themselves after the anonymized ad profiles used by others:
From Apple:
"We create segments, which are groups of people who share similar characteristics, and use these groups for delivering targeted ads. Information about you may be used to determine which segments you’re assigned to, and thus, which ads you receive...
We may use information such as the following to assign you to segments:
• Account Information: Your name, address, age, gender, and devices registered to your Apple ID account. Information such as your first name in your Apple ID registration page or salutation in your Apple ID account may be used to derive your gender. You can update your account information on the Apple ID website.
• Downloads, Purchases & Subscriptions: The music, movies, books, TV shows, and apps you download, as well as any in-app purchases and subscriptions. We don’t allow targeting based on downloads of a specific app or purchases within a specific app (including subscriptions) from the App Store, unless the targeting is done by that app’s developer.
• Apple News and Stocks: The topics and categories of the stories you read and the publications you follow, subscribe to, or turn on notifications from.
• Advertising: Your interactions with ads delivered by Apple’s advertising platform. (*One to note.)
When selecting which ad to display from multiple ads for which you are eligible, we may use some of the above-mentioned information, as well as your App Store searches and browsing activity, to determine which ad is likely to be most relevant to you. App Store browsing activity includes the content and apps you tap and view while browsing the App Store. This information is aggregated across users so that it does not identify you. We may also use local, on-device processing to select which ad to display, using information stored on your device, such as (*but not limited to) the apps you frequently open.
You Eric may be perfectly fine with all of this, but it's not what most Apple users would have expected. You would be an outlier IMO. The fact YOU have no complaints about it does not negate anyone else's concerns with the way this may be built out.
And again, that people are wailing and gnashing teeth about Ads potentially showing up in Maps while seemingly unaware that Ads have been in Maps for awhile is a testament to how well Apple did it.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/08/21/apple-maps-could-serve-advertising-to-users-in-2023
IMO the best post from that article is this one:
"If we do this a little bit by little bit they will accept it. Some will be mad, but they aren't going anywhere. Most will not even notice... or care. We'll even have a few who will try to excuse and justify it. Point is, we are going to be able to continue expanding our advertising efforts because bit by bit, they'll accept anything."
- some Ad guy presenting to Cook and the Executive Committee probably
I jest, but this is going to continue unabated. Apple has realized that increasing advertising in an incremental and methodical way is going to result in general acceptance by their customers and a crap ton of additional revenue and profit. They know you'll learn to love being the product.
If you want to argue that it still requires some sort of payment I can once again very confidently tell you it does not. What proof you ask? The proof is I just this moment did so with one of my businesses. Zero charge to me. Pins are not ads.
Instead of guessing at the facts as you did you could have saved a whole lot of typing and a couple of inaccurate posts by researching and verifying, just as I do.
Other once-upon-a-time businesses next to me show when browsing Maps, one simply described as automobile detailing with no name whatsoever. Two others are no longer in business and haven't been for several years. Guaranteed they are not paying anything.
So reading comprehension my butt.
Quoting: "Unlike Google Maps, which features ads in the form of sponsored pins and uses location and search information to show you targeted ads, Apple Maps has no ads"
Lacking proof to the contrary then you were mistaken and whether you want to admit it or play dodgeball instead won't change that.