You might have heard of Apple’s new iOS update 14.5 which has brought a major change in the field of marketing as we know of. With all the usual features that have been updated a major change in this update is that users can now control apps from collecting their data and browsing activities. This has not gone very well with many app developers and Facebook is one of the most notable and largest companies that has opposed this update. However, with Apple adamant about its new feature rollout, Facebook has started rolling out pop-ups that urge users to allow Facebook to keep tracking the user data as this information helps Facebook developers to keep it free.
These “Educational Screens” as Facebook calls them pop up all of a sudden when the customer is using Facebook or Instagram and provides information to the users about what data is being tracked and how it is being used. The exact screen message quotes “We use information about your activity received from other apps and websites to show you ads that are more personalized, help keep Facebook free of charge, and support businesses that rely on ads to reach their customers”
iPhone users before iOS update 14.5 could not turn this feature off and all the app tracking was turned on by default. But with the new update, users can decide for themselves if they wish to be tracked or not. If this option is turned off, then no browsing data is collected and hence it prevents personalized ads from being displayed. Users will be able to see ads like before but these ads would be random and based on top trending and not customized as per the user’s internet activities. Without this data, the marketing world has received quite a blow as it cannot personalize and customize ads as per the user’s interest. This can reduce sales and impact the income of the product developers as well as middlemen marketing agencies.
These pop-ups are designed with one main goal and that is to inform/remind the user that Facebook is free to use and would like to stay that way. This can be considered as a scare tactic by Facebook which can lead to many iPhone users clicking the Allow button in the app tracking settings. It also breaks the company’s promise to its users that Facebook was “free and always will be.”