La war broke out yesterday, right at the beginning of the week of accounts which should confirm the excellent state of health of the big four of US technology which are worth 40% of the most representative list, the Standard & Poor's 500: A e Microsoft, who will announce their quarterly accounts in the evening. More Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), e Facebook, divided for months by a controversy that has resulted in open conflict.
Yesterday, in fact, Apple introduced with the'IOS 14 update the "App not to track", or a series of limitations on the sharing of user data by reducing the tracking capacity of apps and external advertising platforms. From now on, in short, it will be necessary customer permission to track his tastes for the benefit of advertising. But in doing so, Apple, which claims this progress in the name of privacy ("we want to offer the public the possibility of choice" said Craig Federighi, vice president for software) has entered into collision with Facebook which based a large part of its success on the sale of this data.
“ It is obvious – is the reply coming from Mark Zuckerberg's company – that most people will answer no faced with a question that, apparently simple, is simply hypocritical and a little lying”. “The lower flow of advertising – according to Graham Mudd of Facebook – will result in a bond for the internet to the detriment of small and medium-sized enterprises, which will find it increasingly difficult to offer themselves to the consumer".
“It doesn't surprise me, replies the Apple manager – that there is a strong one opposition to the introduction of the system. But we are confident that we did the right thing."
In short, since yesterday two visions have clashed: on the one hand privacy, on the other the commercial value of the information society. On the one hand, the protection of users, on the other, the promotion of business messages, especially for small businesses. A conflict seasoned with heavy accusations. Zuckerberg accused Apple of "killing the market" by relaunching the statement on the pages of the most important newspapers. Tim Clark, already at the time of Cambridge Analytics, had found that Apple would never have been involved in practices so harmful to privacy. But, beyond the conflicts of prestige, the usual duel is about business. Apple defends its customers who, in terms of per capita spending, are worth much more (up to five times) than other users. The ability to protect privacy against more invasive advertising is just one more powerful commercial weapon. Facebook defends its spaces on the web, so far exterminated. And countermeasures will come soon. Wall Street watches the clash aware that both companies are preparing to file gold accounts. But this season, the stock exchange takes past numbers for granted. The game is about future profits, those that could be conditioned by the App of discord.
