Facebook warns developers and publishes on iOS 14 privacy changes


Facebook is warning publishers and developers of privacy changes in iOS 14. Facebook says the changes will affect those monetizing their content and products on Facebook.

Today, Facebook shared how we’re addressing Apple iOS 14 changes, which includes not collecting the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) on our own apps on iOS 14 devices. This is not a change we want to make, but unfortunately, Apple’s updates to iOS14 have forced this decision. We know this may severely impact publishers’ ability to monetize through Audience Network on iOS 14, and, despite our best efforts, may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14 in the future.

For developers and publishers using Audience Network, our ability to deliver targeted ads on iOS 14 will be limited. As a result, some iOS 14 users may not see any ads from Audience Network, while others may still see ads from us, but they'll be less relevant. Because of advertisers’ reduced ability to accurately target and measure their campaigns, app developers and publishers should expect lower CPMs on Audience Network and likely other ad networks on iOS.

To be clear, the change is users have to explicitly opt into allowing the collection of this information. Previously Apple provided controls to allow users to opt-out. Facebook describes the change as an assault on developers and publishers.
We understand that iOS 14 will hurt many of our developers and publishers at an already difficult time for businesses. We work with more than 19,000 developers and publishers from around the globe¹ and in 2019 we paid out billions of dollars². Many of these are small businesses that depend on ads to support their livelihood.

While this appears to be significantly disrupting Facebook's business model, that model is based on harvesting user data without their permission. This change is long overdue.

Bottom line is if users find value in submitting to Facebook's data surveillance, then they should activate this feature. It's up to Facebook to make this case to its users.