Facebook just confirmed its iPhone privacy nightmare will hurt

Facebook has been attacking Apple’s new privacy protections developed for iOS 14 since late last year. Once Apple started rolling out the app privacy labels that inform iPhone and iPad users how much data an app can collect, Facebook started an ad campaign claiming that Apple will hurt the open internet and small business. The privacy labels revealed the frightening amount of data that Facebook’s apps collect from devices.

Facebook has intensified its campaign in the months that followed, moving from print ads to TV commercials that were practically begging users not to stop Facebook from tracking them across apps and services on iPhone and iPad. Apple tested the new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature that forces developers to ask for consent before their apps can track users.

Apple released iOS 14.5 on Monday with ATT enabled, and apps will soon start asking for permission to track users, Facebook’s apps included. Facebook might have toned down its aggression towards Apple in the past few months, but the company is already bracing for the iPhone nightmare to drop, expecting ATT to hurt its ad business in the coming months.