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Apple is exploiting features to expand its own advertising, say advertisers

As advertisers complain that Apple's privacy features cut revenues for rivals but not for itself, Apple is now greatly expanding its own ad business and is on a hiring spree.

Apple has recently been reported to be cutting recruitment overall, or recruiting more selectively, and is said to have laid off all its temporary recruiting staff. Now the Financial Times says that the company is advertising for some 216 new staff to join and almost double the workforce in its advertising business.

The Financial Times says that the figure of 216 comes from Apple's own careers website. The various ads describe how people are being hired in a project that is about "redefining advertising [for a] privacy-centric world."

Most jobs are in the States, but around 27 are in Europe. Then there are 12 in China, 12 in India, 4 in Japan, and 2 in Singapore. The roles include managers, product designers, sales specialists, and data engineers.

Apple has reportedly declined to comment, but did dispute the figure of 216 roles.

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David Steinberg, chief executive of Zeta Global, a marketing technology company, told the Financial Times that Apple was being both "brilliant" and "Machiavellian" in its approach to advertising and ad sales rivals.

"They could build out [their advertising business] dramatically," he said, "[and] the 'air cover' is they are protecting the consumer's privacy."

Previously, Apple's has consistently been vocal about the detriment and problems of advertising to users. Tim Cook once went so far as to say Apple won't use advertising to get more money out of users.

"The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer — if our customer was our product," he said in 2018. "We've elected not to do that."

However, it has always specifically targeted unwanted ads, or ones where marketing companies profile users by tracking them.

This is what the company's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy feature was introduced to do from iOS 14 onwards. Apple's iOS was a boon for advertisers and arguably the privacy problems were originally created by Apple.

ATT has been very effective, with Facebook ultimately reporting a drop in projected revenues of $10 billion, specifically because of it.

Recently, it's been reported that Apple is working to offer more ads in its apps, and in particular within Apple Maps.

Separately, it's recently been predicted that Apple's advertising business could reach $6 billion by 2025. That's a small amount compared to the $209 billion that the Financial Times says Google's ad business earns, but it has also grown from an estimated few hundred million dollars in the late 2010s.

20 Comments

gatorguy 14 Years · 24686 comments

There is an antitrust investigation already underway because while Apple requires third-party apps to ask permission for ad-tracking, the company doesn't have the same restriction on its own apps.



Also of note:  Apple app developers get paid less for in-app ads when users opt out of Ad Tracking Transparency. Seriously?

Like another AI article says, Apple isn't (now?) against targeted ads, they're just against anyone but themselves doing so. 

6 Likes · 0 Dislikes
xyzzy-xxx 7 Years · 210 comments

It's now a Warren Buffet Apple :(

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
bloggerblog 17 Years · 2545 comments

gatorguy said:
There is an antitrust investigation already underway because while Apple requires third-party apps to ask permission for ad-tracking, the company doesn't have the same restriction on its own apps.

Also of note:  Apple app developers get paid less for in-app ads when users opt out of Ad Tracking Transparency. Seriously?

Like another AI article says, Apple isn't (now?) against targeted ads, they're just against anyone but themselves doing so. 

This may not be ads based on data collection. If a business decides to pay for ads in Maps, they may get a pin no matter who is browsing their area.

5 Likes · 0 Dislikes
gatorguy 14 Years · 24686 comments

gatorguy said:
There is an antitrust investigation already underway because while Apple requires third-party apps to ask permission for ad-tracking, the company doesn't have the same restriction on its own apps.

Also of note:  Apple app developers get paid less for in-app ads when users opt out of Ad Tracking Transparency. Seriously?

Like another AI article says, Apple isn't (now?) against targeted ads, they're just against anyone but themselves doing so. 
This may not be ads based on data collection. If a business decides to pay for ads in Maps, they may get a pin no matter who is browsing their area.

Until those ads start appearing in Maps we won't know for sure. But this article isn't about Maps ads that don't yet exist. It has to do with Apple's existing rules surrounding App Transparency, ad targeting, and what Apple is allowed to do with your data that others are not. 

There is this from Apple:

Location-Based Ads

If you allow App Store or Apple News to access to your location, Apple’s advertising platform may use the approximate current location of your device to provide you with geographically targeted ads on the App Store and on Apple News.

You can opt out of location-based app functionality including for advertising on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, and either tapping to turn off Location Services or selecting App Store or News from the list of location-aware switches and setting it to Never. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, select Location Services, and deselect either “Enable Location Services” or “News.”

Apple’s advertising platform does not receive location-based information when you turn off Location Services on your device.

Personalized Ads

If Personalized Ads is turned on, Apple’s advertising platform may use your information to serve ads that are more relevant to you. Turning off Personalized Ads will prevent Apple from using this information for ad targeting. It may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you.

You can turn off Personalized Ads on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Privacy > Apple Advertising and tapping to turn off Personalized Ads. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, select Apple Advertising, and deselect Personalized Ads. The Personalized Ads option may be unavailable if you are a minor, have a managed account, or are in a location where Apple does not deliver advertising to its apps.

I expect something similar for ads that might appear in Maps. 

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes
foregoneconclusion 13 Years · 2932 comments

gatorguy said:
There is an antitrust investigation already underway because while Apple requires third-party apps to ask permission for ad-tracking, the company doesn't have the same restriction on its own apps.

Also of note:  Apple app developers get paid less for in-app ads when users opt out of Ad Tracking Transparency. Seriously?

Like another AI article says, Apple isn't (now?) against targeted ads, they're just against anyone but themselves doing so. 

This is the permission message: "Allow (name of app) to track your activity across other companies apps and web sites?"

Apple doesn't display that message for their own apps because they're not doing that type of tracking. That isn't an antitrust violation. 

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