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Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

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51–60 of 187 posts

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#51
What is the price differential between contextual ads (you searched for "running shoe" have a nike advert) and personalised ads (you are Paul, we know you have a heart condition and low income and are going through a divorce - have an ad for this dating site while you search for running shoes)

Duck Duck Go clearly think there is profit in contextual ads - and I would love to find out if there is any hard evidence out there either way?

(other than the obvious Google and FB do personalised because it is more profitable. I know that and at FB scale a 1% profit improvement is worthwhile pursuit - but from society's POV that 1% diff may as well be irrelevant- it won't improve the mom and pop store bottom line enough for the damage it does.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#52
post #9
post #4

Just because there is now a multi-billion-dollar industry based on the abject betrayal of our privacy doesn’t mean the sociopaths who built it have any right whatsoever to continue getting away with it. This is fair enough as it goes but remember it's coming from one of the biggest cheerleaders of a company that became the richest in the world while taking away user freedoms we used to take for granted on general pur…

You can easily replace your apple products, but not your social network apps. all your friends have to switch, too

My understanding (not living there) is that in the US, Apple have a dominant position in group chat via their proprietary embrace-extend-extinguish version of SMS.

In my experience, it's relatively straightforward to get people to switch off WhatsApp/Messenger to Signal/Telegram, since it's just another app. It'd be more difficult if it held a privileged position in the OS.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#53
post #7

> Users can easily choose to keep providing Facebook (and anyone else) with all the information they want. Or they can choose not to. This part hits the nail on the head. Facebook is intentionally being misleading in this campaign. I’ve had the IDFA turned off on my phone for years. Now apps have to ask for it individually. If apps have to prompt to access it, and this benefits small businesses so much, wouldn’t peop…

Super agree. I can't describe that ad in any other way than a sophisticated lie. They are making it look like Apple wants to take away choice from the user when it's exactly the other way around.

They are careful to never mention what the iOS 14 updates are actually about, but a lie by omission is still a lie.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#54
"At Facebook, small business is at the core of our business."

Has someone here worked in marketing/PR? How can people write stuff like that and not feel incredibly dirty? This is a mostly honest question.

Every time some super big company starts some campaign feigning compassion or act the victim I just want to barf.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#55
post #7

> Users can easily choose to keep providing Facebook (and anyone else) with all the information they want. Or they can choose not to. This part hits the nail on the head. Facebook is intentionally being misleading in this campaign. I’ve had the IDFA turned off on my phone for years. Now apps have to ask for it individually. If apps have to prompt to access it, and this benefits small businesses so much, wouldn’t peop…

I am extremely torn about this thing, especially as I work in the privacy space. But it's hard to ignore the argument put forward by Ben Thompson that better tracking for facebook, actually tends to help small businesses. If you can't hyper target, you get ads for tooth paste, cars and deodorant (TV ads). If you can then you get ads for boutique florists in your area or gadgets you might actually like.

I don't know what the solution is, because I want to be on small businesses side.

And the issue with apple now is, I guarantee 99% of people will reject IDFA, because it is about personal data and it does sound bad. But the end result of this might not be that good for small business.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#56
post #7

> Users can easily choose to keep providing Facebook (and anyone else) with all the information they want. Or they can choose not to. This part hits the nail on the head. Facebook is intentionally being misleading in this campaign. I’ve had the IDFA turned off on my phone for years. Now apps have to ask for it individually. If apps have to prompt to access it, and this benefits small businesses so much, wouldn’t peop…

> once people actually understand the scope of ad tracking networks... they don’t want it.

I wish this was true but I have friends who want the perceived benefits. They firmly believe handing over that data benefits them. More relevant ads, more useful services and features, more free stuff, etc. I bring up yet another place I don't want to be tracked and they just retort they want to share as much info as possible.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#57

What is the price differential between contextual ads (you searched for "running shoe" have a nike advert) and personalised ads (you are Paul, we know you have a heart condition and low income and are going through a divorce - have an ad for this dating site while you search for running shoes) Duck Duck Go clearly think there is profit in contextual ads - and I would love to find out if there is any hard evidence out…

This is the million (or trillion) dollar question.

I doubt its 1%. In fact I think its more like 2-3-4x revenue from personalised ads. Just a hunch.

(side question - how do you do context ads for FB news feed? Because I can see it working well for youtube, if you know the topic of the video. Or google search, where you know the search. But I don't see how you can't NOT use personal ads in a newsfeed, whether on FB or twitter. There is no real context in a stream of random information)

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#58

"At Facebook, small business is at the core of our business." Has someone here worked in marketing/PR? How can people write stuff like that and not feel incredibly dirty? This is a mostly honest question. Every time some super big company starts some campaign feigning compassion or act the victim I just want to barf.

This isn't actually a lie. As much as you might hate FB using all your data for ads, that does actually mean that small businesses can hyper target their customers.

I personally don't see any ads on FB for mass market products, like on TV (cards, detergent, back pain medicine etc). I see gadgets that are cool, clothes from small producers that are actually kind fo cool.

They do actually help small businesses. As much evil as they do, you can't take this way from them.

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#59
post #55
post #7

> Users can easily choose to keep providing Facebook (and anyone else) with all the information they want. Or they can choose not to. This part hits the nail on the head. Facebook is intentionally being misleading in this campaign. I’ve had the IDFA turned off on my phone for years. Now apps have to ask for it individually. If apps have to prompt to access it, and this benefits small businesses so much, wouldn’t peop…

I am extremely torn about this thing, especially as I work in the privacy space. But it's hard to ignore the argument put forward by Ben Thompson that better tracking for facebook, actually tends to help small businesses. If you can't hyper target, you get ads for tooth paste, cars and deodorant (TV ads). If you can then you get ads for boutique florists in your area or gadgets you might actually like. I don't know w…

Allowing small businesses to tack on a stealth 5% charge onto your credit card also helps small businesses, but would you advocate for that?

Re: Facebook Takes Out Newspaper Ads to Attack Apple's Strengthening iOS Privacy

#60

The hypocrisy is unbearable. Facebook is everything thats wrong with internet. A company that basically profits from people living out their worst instincts (xenophobia, misogyny, chauvinism, plain hate) and from fueling insecurities of vulnerable people (paranoia, body image issues, etc.). I recently switched to the IPhone after a decade of Android, mainly due to the much better privacy protection. I hope they go mu…

I'm with Apple here, but talking about Facebook, did you mean:

> A company that basically profits from people being people ?

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