Apple recently announced that the iOS 14 update will directly impact how Facebook is able to receive and process conversion events from the social media giant’s various management and tracking tools, including Facebook Pixel. The end-users that will be affected by the changes include those who optimise, target and report on web conversion events across any of Facebook’s business tools.
The new iOS 14 privacy policy will prohibit specific data from being collected and shared, unless users specifically opt in to tracking across iOS 14 devices when prompted. This means that more and more Apple users will choose to opt out of tracking on their devices, leading to limited conversion performance and ad personalisation data being recorded.
In response to Apple’s privacy policy changes, Facebook have announced that they will begin to process pixel conversion events from iOS 14 devices using Aggregated Event Measurement. This is a protocol that allows for measurement of web events from iOS 14 users, which limits domains to eight conversion events that can be prioritised for conversion optimisation. Facebook are confident that Aggregated Event Measurement will enable individuals to preserve their online privacy, as well as providing businesses with the data they require to run effective social media campaigns.
App Tracking Transparency – the new policy in questions – does not prevent Facebook from tracking users across its own apps (for example, between Instagram and WhatsApp). However, Facebook can no longer track users across apps it doesn’t own unless the user gives it permission to do so. As Facebook generated a huge 98% of its revenue in 2020 via digital advertisements on on its own platforms, it remains to be seen how badly Apple’s privacy policy will affect them, especially as it looks like they can no longer serve targeted advertisements as effectively since it lacks information about user behaviour outside of its own apps on iOS devices.
Click here to learn more on Apple’s changes and how Facebook have responded so far.
