Facebook CFO says personalized advertising 'under assault' by Apple privacy changes
Business models that rely on personalized advertising are "under assault" by iOS 14 privacy changes, Facebook's chief revenue officer said Tuesday.
Credit: YaLa
The changes include a new feature that requires users to opt-in to tracking via Identifier for Advertiser, or IDFA, tags on a per-app basis. Although initially planned for the general iOS 14 release, Apple delayed the rollout of the feature until 2021 following public outcry from a number of companies that gain a bulk of their revenue from ad serving, including Facebook.
Speaking digitally at Advertising Week on Tuesday, Facebook CFO David Fischer said that "the very tools that entrepreneurs, that businesses are relying on right now are being threatened," CNBC reported.
"To me, the changes that Apple has proposed, pretty sweeping changes, are going to hurt developers and businesses the most," Fischer added, singling out the IDFA change in iOS.
The Facebook executive also said that the company plans to "defend" its business model, which it sees as valuable and different from Apple's. Fischer referred to Apple's business as "one that sells luxury hardware or subscription services, mainly to consumers like us who are fortunate enough to have a lot of discretionary income in some of the world's wealthiest countries."
Although Apple positions the changes as a pro-privacy measure, Facebook isn't the only company that is concerned about it. Media companies and publishers are "bracing" for the IDFA change, and in September, a group representing the ad industry urged a "dialogue" about the proposed feature.
Credit: YaLa
The changes include a new feature that requires users to opt-in to tracking via Identifier for Advertiser, or IDFA, tags on a per-app basis. Although initially planned for the general iOS 14 release, Apple delayed the rollout of the feature until 2021 following public outcry from a number of companies that gain a bulk of their revenue from ad serving, including Facebook.
Speaking digitally at Advertising Week on Tuesday, Facebook CFO David Fischer said that "the very tools that entrepreneurs, that businesses are relying on right now are being threatened," CNBC reported.
"To me, the changes that Apple has proposed, pretty sweeping changes, are going to hurt developers and businesses the most," Fischer added, singling out the IDFA change in iOS.
The Facebook executive also said that the company plans to "defend" its business model, which it sees as valuable and different from Apple's. Fischer referred to Apple's business as "one that sells luxury hardware or subscription services, mainly to consumers like us who are fortunate enough to have a lot of discretionary income in some of the world's wealthiest countries."
Although Apple positions the changes as a pro-privacy measure, Facebook isn't the only company that is concerned about it. Media companies and publishers are "bracing" for the IDFA change, and in September, a group representing the ad industry urged a "dialogue" about the proposed feature.
Comments
They are completely different roles. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is in charge of the company's finances and is a fiduciary responsible for accurate representation of the company's financials. This includes SEC filings.
The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) in a company like Facebook is in charge of sales, essentially the sales director. Since most of Facebook's revenue is selling ads, this guy is basically the head ad salesman.
Per Facebook's investor relations site:
David Wehner is the CFO. His department is mostly accountants, financial analysts, etc.
David Fischer is the CRO. His department is mostly ad sales people, ad sales directors, account executives, etc.
Two completely different people in two completely different roles.
CFOs of Fortune 10 companies don't swagger and make bombastic and sweeping accusatory statements. They generally talk about numbers in the past tense, usually the same numbers published in an SEC filing. They aren't trash talkers. That should have been the glaring hint that this Fischer guy is NOT the CFO.
AppleInsider needs to rewrite large parts of this article and the headline to correctly represent who these two senior Facebook managers are.
If I invite someone into my house, I don't expect them to then read and share all my personal documents. Apps given access to Contacts for a particular purpose that then copy the entire address book are just one example of such bad behaviour.
And who told you that I want your personal advertising, even when I purposely don’t want your application
on my devices?
FB’s argument is just invalid.
The thing is, this capability exists in spades these days in terms of podcasts, blogs, etc. The problem is that the ad-buyers are lazy and just want to sell a package and let the algorithms do the work. If this gets curtailed (and, remember IPv6 is coming and cookies are going away as well), they'll actually have to get off their butts and sell ads once again to appropriate media.
I love the little "shield" icon on MacOS Safari. One-step setting!
I don't use Google, FaceBook, Twitter, or Microsoft products.
I wish Apple would create and invest in a facebook-like social media app, a twitter-like app, a search engine, an Amazon-like app and offer no ads, no tracking, etc., etc., and just look at it as an investment to make the internet experience more....how should I say it? Apple-like!
FYI: I think I have this right, of all the personal data that has been harvested by bad actors (see above) 98% has been harvested in the last 2 years!
I access those sites via my desktop, and just don't use the apps, or like you, just use a browser while on mobile (ie. iPad... I wouldn't bother with my phone).
Mr. Fischer
We don't like what you do.
We don't like your business model.
To be bluntly we don't like you.
So yes, your abusive business model is under assault.
I'd say deal with it but I'd rather you give up and let Facebook die.
ha - what elitist rubbish. Given the broad range of people I see using iPhones this claim is nonsense and indicates Apple products are readily accessible for many people. As for services, the price points for their services fall into the same range as its competitors.
I think what he is really saying is that Apple users are willing to spend and are the key market Facebook wants to target for its advertising model. Taking away that market from Facebook is going to hurt Facebook's income and wealth.