by Jim Lundy

Apple is in the process of trying out its new iOS privacy features to protect users and allow them to opt out from services that track, including Facebook. Facebook is not happy about this and it has been running ads in major newspapers challenging Apples move.

Table of Contents

• The War to Track you
• Why does Privacy matter?
• What can enterprises do to protect their users?
• Bottom Line

The War to Track You—Why Apple Is the Good Guy

Facebook is trying to make Apple look like the bad guy, but in reality, Apple is actually protecting both users and enterprises by allowing them to opt out of highly intrusive tracking capabilities that are designed to profile you so that Facebook can sell you ads.

In the US many people are just becoming aware of some of the issues around privacy, but in Europe there are much stronger measures such as GDPR that allow people to try to opt out of being tracked.

Facebook claims this is an intrusion on small businesses but it’s really not. While tracking user behavior has always been part of the data that helps to fuel ads, the level of intrusive behavior demonstrated by Facebook has reached unprecedented levels. Many people don’t even realize that even if they don’t use Facebook they can still be tracked on websites that use Facebook cellular data.

Why Does Privacy Matter? It Comes Down to Data

What many people and enterprises don’t realize is that advertising platforms can be used to spy on you—both by companies with good intentions and companies or governments with bad intentions. Many attacks on enterprises occur from an executive social media account and passwords are often compromised.

Individuals and enterprises also need to realize companies such as Facebook can extract information from your cellular data or buy your data from third parties.

In recent Apple news is the decision to protect computer security by limiting the data that can be gathered by a Facebook profile. Beyond the list of privacy laws, moves like this will be critical to preserving user privacy.

What Can Enterprises Do to Protect User Data and Privacy?

First, enterprises need to realize that protecting their users is a part of a broader privacy strategy that needs to go beyond the restrictions recently implemented by Apple. The enterprise needs to go much further with tools that help them apply their privacy policy. There are many new privacy and end-user protection offerings that help to manage the theft of your data (see our recent Hot Vendor report). Tools such as these need to be part of the enterprise security footprint.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that Apple just helped the entire tech industry by taking a stand against the theft of user data. Facebook may not be able to sell the type of deeply personal ads that it wants to, but they will survive, and users and enterprises will be better off because of Apple’s moves. However, for most enterprises, they will need to go much further to protect their data and their users than just using iOS privacy policies alone.

Editors Note: Facebook is allegedly tracking an app update that will ask users to allow Facebook to track their activity. Developing.