From what I know about the many (MANY) privacy issues and battles that Meta (Formally known as Facebook) has found itself in throughout the last decade, many companies and countries have taken a stand to fight back against how exactly Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, Whatsapp, etc collect and harvest data. One of the biggest and most important to take a stand is the creators of the iPhone and one of the biggest tech giants on the planet Apple. With Datarepotal stating that over 14.8% of users logged on from the IOS app to Facebook in 2021, the current developments can/will dramatically affect Meta's outlook on the website in the near future.
The recent changes have to do with how tracking your phone's data is done. Now with a single click of a button, you can opt-out of allowing Facebook to track your personal data outside of the app. for Forbes, written by Senior Contributor Kate O'Flaherty states "Apple's new privacy features continue to hit Facebook as increasing numbers of iPhone users opt-out from tracking on their devices... According to a new analysis, the iPhone maker's 'App Tracking Transparency' (ATT) features will cost Facebook $12.8 billion in 2022". This stops advertisements from being able to tailor themselves specifically to information about you they have accrued from Facebook, simply handing it over to them.
This is a tricky issue depending on where you are in all of this. From Apple and the consumer's perspective, this is a massive win on our right to privacy online, no longer having to worry so much (if you're on an iPhone) that one of the giant corporate conglomerates of the world is tracking your every move online. While looking at this from Facebook's or a business's perspective, you just lost out on a huge portion of revenue that you depended on to maintain your business year after year.
Now there is the issue of the large and vocal group of Facebook users and others who downright pray for the downfall of the company. Not without good reason but it isn't a secret that over the last 5 years Facebook has been in the news cycle for countless stories of their platform promoting hate, hemorrhaging money, and world-changing political scandals, typically in the same week. Which just makes the platform a risky venture from the outset. As a business, this platform has one of if not arguably the largest amount of users of any website of all time and promises to consistently grow. But, constant growth is a fantasy, and what we've learned from this company and many others is when that line stops going up and plateaus they often panic, as seen with Netflix and especially with Facebook. The pivot to the "Metaverse" isn't coincidental.
Facebook has been losing a lot in recent times. From the over $10 billion lost due to Apple's change in policy. To, as reported by Peter Kafka for Vox, "If you thought Mark Zuckerberg's pivot to a yet-to-exist metaverse is a fantasy, you could point to the $10 billion the company said it sunk into the effort [in 2021]." Finally, Tiktok coming breaking onto the scene and comes out swinging, with a quote from Mark Zuckerberg about Tiktok stating "that the video app was 'so big as a competitor already, and also continues to grow at quite a fast rate off of a very large base.'" All in all, Apple's recent decisions have made starting up and managing a business on Facebook more difficult but not impossible, as previously stated it is still one of the largest platforms for social outreach and growth in the world, with a good economy, and great tools to use for your business. Hopefully, the corporation can stay its course and continue to make it possible for small businesses to start up and run on its site in the future. At the moment while I am still weary of the website, I cannot overlook the opportunity to grow and the good I can do for my brand and business on it. So learning the site will do me better than harming me in any way, I am still excited to see where it will take me and what lengths I can reach on here and other platforms like it.
Citations:
Kemp, Simon, "Facebook Statistics and Trends", Datareportal.com, August 15th, 2022, https://datareportal.com/essential-facebook-stats, Accessed Dec. 7, 2022
O'Flaherty, Kate, "Apple's Privacy Features Will Cost Facebook $12 Billion", Forbes.com, April 23rd, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2022/04/23/apple-just-issued-stunning-12-billion-blow-to-facebook/?sh=1e3857181907, Accessed Dec. 7, 2022
Kafka, Peter, "Apple broke Facebook's ad machine. Who's going to fix it?", Vox.com, February 14th, 2022, https://www.vox.com/recode/22929715/facebook-apple-ads-meta-privacy, Accessed Dec. 7, 2022
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