Thread by @MorningBrew

1/ This week, Apple is rolling out its iOS 14.5 software update for iPhone users, including...

The ability to unlock phones with your face while wearing a mask

217 new emojis to express emotions you didn’t even know you had

2/ But there’s one particular iOS 14.5 update that’s less “oh neat!” and more “this could shake up the $105 billion mobile ad industry.”

It’s called App Tracking Transparency

3/ With this new feature, apps will be required to ask for your permission to track your activity across the internet.

That data is crucial to advertisers who want to use your internet history to show you ads you’re more likely to click on.

4/ Problem for advertisers is, when you ask someone whether they want to be tracked or not, the majority say no.

So why is Apple doing it?

5/ It’s part of CEO Tim Cook’s push to add more privacy features to Apple’s ecosystem.

Here’s Cook at a privacy conference in January:

“Technology does not need vast troves of personal data, stitched together across dozens of websites and apps, in order to succeed.”

6/ “If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.”

Sound like a business you know?

7/ You got it: Facebook

Facebook took to App Tracking Transparency like a foot to a stray Lego piece.

In a PR blitz following Apple’s announcement, it argued that small businesses would be hurt without the ability to send users targeted FB ads.

8/ Whether Facebook’s ad biz will be dinged as much as it says it will is unclear, but other apps like Snap and Bumble have warned that Apple’s moves could be harmful.

9/ Bottom line

Apple’s aggressive privacy measures are putting competitors on the back foot, but they could also invite even more antitrust scrutiny to its dominance of the app economy.

📸: @MacRumors