Facebook took out full-page ads last week, attacking Apple’s new privacy feature in iOS 14. The new feature alerts users when an app wishes to track their activity in other applications, and gives them the choice to allow it or block it. The idea is to put users in control of their privacy, instead of allowing these companies to track users without their knowing. Facebook was one of many apps tracking users in the background of other apps. Amazon, Google, and others do as well. Facebook’s employees aren’t always comfortable with the level of tracking they do on their users. However, offering them choices to control their own privacy, as Apple is trying to do, is easy to agree to.
It seems employees of Facebook and Facebook’s leadership disagree about user privacy and choice.
While Facebook’s leadership is taking out misleading full page ads in newspapers, their employees are taking to internal message boards and discussion groups to ask Facebook to take a step back.
Facebook’s Messaging
“Aren’t we worried that our stance protecting [small- and medium-sized businesses] will backfire as people see it as ‘FB protecting their own business’ instead?”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
In iOS 14, users will be able to block apps from tracking their activity in other apps through advertising IDs. This will close off each app, preventing apps like Facebook from directly spying on what you do in Amazon’s app. As you can imagine, these data thieves aren’t happy about it.
Facebook’s full page ads claim they’re against Apple’s new privacy features because they want to help small businesses. However, it’s actually to keep as much of users’ data as they can, and mostly benefit’s Facebook’s bottom line. Small businesses existed long before Facebook meddled. In fact, Facebook has been responsible for squashing competition in tech, not fostering entrepreneurship. Small businesses can still easily target local patrons, without needing to know what they’re doing in other applications. Facebook still has plenty of data for targeting.
What Facebook really doesn’t want is to lose business to web-based giant Google, who can track users through the apps they use like Google Chrome, Gmail, or Google Maps. Google has so many more apps that people use every day than Facebook. They have Android, an entire operating system made to track users, as well as the most-used web browser, Google Chrome. Facebook’s trying to compete with that through sneaky data sharing practices. Now iOS 14 will tattle on Facebook if they try that.
Facebook Employees Reject Facebook’s Messaging
“It feels like we are trying to justify doing a bad thing by hiding behind people with a sympathetic message.”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
Facebook put employees on a video call with small business owners who use Facebook’s advertising. They all claimed to appreciate the work Facebook does in helping them target and find customers. The small business owners were reportedly volunteering to offer their input, they were not paid to do so. However, as employees pointed out, none of them stated why their ads would rely on Facebook tracking users in other applications.
Employees pointed out that Facebook’s basic message of, “We’re here to help small businesses,” didn’t hide their true intentions. They’re worried that the messaging is so clearly hollow; Facebook is asking users to abandon privacy for a reason that Facebook clearly doesn’t care about.
People want ‘privacy.’ FB objecting here will be viewed with cynicism. Did we know this would be bad PR, & decide to publish anyway?”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
“How do we pick a message that looks less self servicing?”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
“Why can’t we make opt-in so compelling that people agree to do so? I can think of a dozen ideas that might make people join. Why couldn’t FB create its own version of Prime for example, that gives you discounts on purchases?”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
One employee commented that, by trying to undermine Apple’s new privacy policy, Facebook was becoming, “a traditional trojan virus.” A trojan virus, for those who don’t know, is a piece of software that seems harmless. It may even have the features that users downloaded it for. For example, a calculator app could still work as a calculator. However, its true purpose is to infect a system. They’ll collect data on what you’re doing, your passwords, and more, and sell it.
Facebook’s using their social network to get on users’ devices and track their usage of other apps. While they’re not collecting your passwords, they’re definitely using the same tactics of a trojan virus. Employees don’t like the fact that they’re arguing for something that could aid malicious actors more than anyone else.
“We’re not going to… be the only ones that should be allowed to track people without their consent — any company can do that, even smaller startups and malicious actors”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
Considering that Facebook is asking for something that benefits the “bad guys,” they’ve had to stop and ask themselves:
Another Facebook employee shared the above meme from a British comedy series, That Mitchell and Webb Look. The basics of the sketch is one Nazi realizing that, from their actions and scary uniforms, that they may actually be the bad guys. It’s a hilarious sketch, and you can find it online. If this link ends up broken, just search for, “Are we the baddies,” and you’ll surely find it. That same employee also shared this, stating that, basically, Facebook, by fighting the choice to block this traffic, is stating that the only way their business works is if they can steal data, not take it willingly from users.
“The only thing I’m hearing, again and again, is ‘this is bad for the businesses,’ and I’d really like someone at the top to explicitly say, ‘People are better off if they don’t know what we’re doing, if we don’t have to explain ourselves to them, if they don’t get a choice to opt in or opt out of our practices, if we obscure it as much as possible behind interesting features and then get them to accept surreptitious tracking on the back end as long as we downplay it.”
– Facebook employee on an internal post
This is the best summation of the problem. Facebook is openly admitting that, because Apple’s offering users a choice and revealing what Facebook has always been doing, they’re hurting their business. It’s like a criminal complaining about the security cameras at the front of a building because it means people may not let them in to steal items from their home. Facebook is openly admitting that they only can steal data, they can’t get this data if users have a choice. That alone should scare anyone away from Facebook.
Facebook is Scared
Facebook has a few antitrust lawsuits coming at them from the U.S. government. Their acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, competitors they found through a sneaky VPN that spied on users browsing habits, could lead to the company breaking up into at least three separate units. That could hurt Facebook’s bottom line significantly, and would open the door for more competition in social networking.
Facebook claims they’re working for small businesses. But this year, due to automation programs that saved Facebook 30% over the previous six month period, many small businesses found a mistake left their ads disabled for weeks. Facebook didn’t rush to fix their accounts or the problem. Facebook doesn’t care about these small businesses, they only care about anyone preventing them from stealing people’s private information. Apple’s in their way because they’re playing gatekeeper with your security. With an antitrust lawsuit looming and now Apple making more people aware of Facebook’s criminal-like activity, Facebook’s scared.
Good.
Sources
- Hartley Charlton, MacRumors
- Luke Dormehl, Cult of Mac
- Mike Peterson, AppleInsider
- Craig Silverman, Ryan Mac, Buzzfeed News