FEATURE
in both the short and long terms.
Of course, a company with as many
resources as Apple may be able to
weather the occasional squall, but
every once in a while you get a perfect
storm that’s harder to fend off.
Let’s take a look at these three
brewing fights and how they might
force Apple to batten down its hatches
in the year ahead.APPLE VS FACEBOOK
If you’ve been paying attention to
tech news, you’ve probably seen the
recent offensive launched by one of
Apple’s rivals in Big Tech. Facebook
has taken aim at an upcoming measure
Apple is planning to implement: App
Tracking Transparency.
As Facebook would have it, this
measure would completely destroy
advertising on the Internet, especially
impacting small businesses that
predominantly rely on advertising
to get their products out there. The
social media giant has taken out full
page ads in the Wall Street Journal,
casting itself as a defender of those
same small businesses in standing up
to Apple’s tyranny.
So what is App Tracking
Transparency? It’s pretty much what
it says on the tin. Many websites and
apps track information about youusing third-party ad networks – like,
say, Facebook’s – thus aggregating
data about customers’ activities
across the net. That information is
then used to build profiles customers,
allowing ad networks to make more
narrowly targeted ads. If you’ve ever
felt like you were just thinking about
a product and then suddenly seen an
ad for that product appear, this kind
of tracking is one way ad companies
make that happen.
Apple’s new measure would simply
require apps to ask users if they
consent to this tracking, making it
more of an opt-in situation than the
opt-out it is currently. Understandably,
Facebook and other ad networks –
who profit handsomely by the current
situation – aren’t thrilled about this,
for the simple reason that most people
probably aren’t going to jump at the
chance to opt in. But Apple’s stance
is that this is about transparency and
privacy for consumers, and it’s tough
to argue that point. The change is
expected to go into effect with an
upcoming release of iOS 14.5, but the
battle may just be getting started.APPLE VS EPIC
The App Store became a contentious
battleground this year, and of the shots
that were fired, more than a few of