As you know, companies like Facebook use various data to tailor advertising to individual users. At the end of last year, he introduced Apple new privacy changes forcing app developers to ask iPhone users for permission to collect their personal data, which Facebook was understandably not happy about. In addition to that on Apple is preparing a lawsuit over alleged anti-competitive practices, has now launched a new advertising campaign focused on helping small businesses hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Rather, they are trying to convince iPhone users to turn on targeted advertising and others to allow themselves to be tracked for that purpose.
As part of a campaign called Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found, Facebook released a video that currently has far more 'dislikes' than 'likes'. The social giant's declared intention to help small businesses is an obvious call to its users to continue to be tracked for targeted advertising, and to iPhone users to turn it on. The video shows far more Facebook and Instagram users discovering things to watch and buy than small businesses.
The title of the video was apparently not chosen at random, it seems to give the impression that targeted advertising on Facebook is something new. However, Facebook has been and still is tracking users for personalized advertising long before that (more precisely, those who have not explicitly opted out of tracking), because that's what their business is based on.
Still, the campaign isn't that bad. As part of it, Facebook will waive fees for companies that sell their products using the Checkout feature in Facebook Stores (and will do so until June next year) and will also not collect fees for online events until August of this year. In addition, for example, it makes it easier for restaurants to add their menus to Facebook company pages. While these and other generous gestures may help businesses to some extent with advertising costs, it should be remembered that their primary purpose is to help Facebook's business.
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