Over the past few years, we have seen a lot of change to privacy policies that have been driven by the tech giants and waves of regulation from all around the world.
While we don’t have clarity on what this looks like, changes at Apple and to the Facebook Ads platform have given us a glimpse into what digital will look like in a privacy-focused future.
Apple uses the theory that tracking is private if it happens on your device and is not private if leaves your device hence the recent iOS updates that have drastically impacted Facebook Ads. Facebook estimates that in aggregate they are underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 15%.
In June, Facebook started giving the details of how they are changing the way it counts user profiles for advertising purposes. Currently, Facebook uses data, like a user’s email address or phone ID to identify a person and which profiles belong to them. This meant that the information about a user could be drawn together from different accounts. Facebook could use insights about a user from Instagram to target Ads within Facebook.
On Monday, Facebook shared a blog where they outlined their steps to minimise the amount of personal information they process. Now, Facebook will stop linking accounts unless users proactively enable this, or unless people use features that tie the accounts together, like cross-posting to Instagram and Facebook at the same time. The change won’t affect the daily or monthly active users but will mean that audience sizes appear bigger as audiences will be made up of profiles rather than users.
Advertisers don’t necessarily want (or at least need) to know who you are as an individual. They want to show Ads for beard oil to people with beards and not to people who don’t. Targeting ads isn’t fundamentally evil. It allows small businesses to reach new audiences, grow and use their budget more effectively so that they can compete against bigger companies.
These changes from Apple and Facebook align with the trend of consumers wanting more control over privacy and show us how the tech giants will have to evolve in a privacy-focused future.
For more information visit Facebook.com.
