Facebook rolls out iPhone message amid Apple privacy row

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Facebook will introduce a pop-up notification for iPhone users outlining the alleged benefits of personalised adverts amid an ongoing privacy row with Apple.

The social media giant said in a blog post on Monday that it would pre-empt a prompt by Apple concerning user privacy by rolling out its own message to provide “additional context”.

The two tech companies have been trading jabs over Apple’s decision to offer customers the option to allow apps to track them across other apps and websites or not.

“Apple’s new prompt suggests there is a tradeoff between personalised advertising and privacy; when in fact, we can and do provide both,” Facebook’s blog post stated.

"The Apple prompt also provides no context about the benefits of personalised ads… If you accept the prompts for Facebook and Instagram, the ads you see on those apps won’t change. If you decline, you will still see ads, but they will be less relevant to you. 

“Agreeing to these prompts doesn’t result in Facebook collecting new types of data. It just means that we can continue to give people better experiences.”

When Apple first announced its decision to warn users about how companies were using their personal data through its App Tracking Transparency feature, Facebook claimed that it would harm small businesses by preventing them from being able to reach their target audience.

Privacy advocates condemned Facebook’s stance, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) describing it as a “laughable” distraction tactic.

The EFF joined Amnesty International and Mozilla in supporting Apple’s change, which the Cupertino company said was “a simple matter of standing up for our users”.

The EFF claimed Facebook had built an “empire” around anticompetitive behaviour, “poor privacy" and tracking users.

“This latest campaign from Facebook is one more direct attack against our privacy and, despite its slick packaging, it’s also an attack against other businesses, both large and small," the EFF said in December.

“This new feature from Apple is one more step in the right direction, reducing developer abuse by giving users knowledge and control over their own personal data.”

Apple’s privacy pop-up notifications are expected to roll out in the coming months.