Facebook: Apple Update Could Hinder Audience Network Advertising

Facebook: Apple Update Could Hinder Audience Network Advertising

Facebook’s capacity to provide targeted advertisements to those who have iPhones as they use other apps could be hampered by updates to Apple’s latest operating system (OS), according to the social media company, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The updates are implemented with the new iOS14, which has been provided to software creators in beta.

“Ultimately, despite our best efforts, Apple’s updates may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14,” Facebook said in a note to developers.

Facebook does not make the breadth of its Audience Network known to the public; however, it is thought to comprise a part of the social media platform’s $70 billion online ad business. Firms that harness the ad infrastructure from Facebook to offer in-app ads could encounter effects from Apple’s update.

Last August, Facebook announced it rolled out a new privacy technology to allow users to prevent their data from being sent to the site for targeted ads. The Off-Facebook Activity technology lets users view a summary of the sites and apps that provide Facebook data about their activity and remove this data from their account.

The firm said at the time, “This is another way to give people more transparency and control on Facebook, along with recent updates to our Ad Library, updates to ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ and the launch of a new feature called ‘Why am I seeing this post?’”

Facebook recently put its support behind a law that would ease the process of moving media to a competing site. The news came before an upcoming Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hearing on the topic.

The firm has indicated that a proposed data portability law, the Access Act, is a first move in the correct direction.