Security News > 2021 > February > In wake of Apple privacy controls, Facebook mulls just begging its iOS app users to let it track them over the web

Facebook has created a new screen in its iOS app that will urge people to allow it to continue stalking their online activities for targeted advertising.

This is in response to Apple preparing to introduce a prompt that asks users whether or not they want to grant Facebook's software permission to track them when they use other apps and websites.

If permission is granted, Facebook's app can access what Apple calls its Identifier for Advertisers - a unique per-user ID that can be used to identify and track you from app to app and website to website on iOS, allowing the antisocial network to build up an idea of your interests so it can target you with ads tailored for you - ads you might click on more than random ones.

Apple is going to make it opt-in rather than opt-out: Facebook and any other app that wants to use the identifier has to get permission from the user on a per-app basis.

In effect, Facebook and Apple are going to have a war of words on punters' phones, with Facebook urging folks that tailored advertising is useful, particularly for Facebook's bottom line, and Apple giving its fans the option of staying the hell out of Mark Zuckerberg's sights for even just a few minutes of the day.

This also comes after Apple put privacy warning labels on software in its iOS app store, which revealed - for instance - the incredible amount of info harvested from devices by Facebook's software.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/02/01/facebook_app_privacy_justification/