Amid a block of public attacks on Apple from Facebook over privacy measures, Facebook employees have expressed their displeasure with the campaign’s leadership in comments received BuzzFeed News.
/article-new/2020/12/Apple-vs-Facebook-feature.jpg?resize=560%2C315&ssl=1)
Last week, Facebook launched a campaign in print newspapers explaining that it was “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere,” and created a website encourages people to “Talk About Small Business.”
Facebook argues that Apple ‘s privacy changes in iOS 14, which will give users the option to opt – out of ad tracking, will hurt small businesses that see more sales from personalized ads. However, it is reported that some Facebook employees are complaining about what they saw as a self-service campaign.
BuzzFeed News received comments from one of Facebook ‘s private message boards and heard a presentation to Facebook employees, expressing dissatisfaction among employees about the area being used to attack Apple privacy changes. One Facebook engineer, in response to an internal post about the campaign from Facebook’s head of advertising, Dan Levy, said:
It feels like we are trying to justify doing something wrong by hiding behind people with a decent message.
Ahead of an internal meeting to explain the philosophy of the campaign against Apple, Facebook staff asked and voted a number of questions aimed at the impact of the campaign on Facebook ‘s public image. The most frequently asked questions were reported to raise doubts or concerns:
Aren’t we worried that our position is defensive [small- and medium-sized businesses] will there be a backfire as people see it as “Facebook defends their own business” instead?
People want “privacy,” Facebook who complains here will be viewed with gossip. Did we know this would be bad PR, and decided to publish anyway?
How do we choose a message that doesn’t look so self-serving?
In response, product marketing vice president Graham Mudd said the company has been “very clear” that Apple’s changes are “affecting us financially,” as well as small businesses:
We are not trying to wipe that out. We are, you know, a very profitable company and we are going to get through this and change our results and so on. But the real people who are going to be hit by this are small businesses, which is why we have focused the message on them.
After the show, a lot of Facebook employees seemed to have no idea. Some did not understand how Apple’s changes could affect small businesses, and one pointed out that Apple’s privacy changes also prevent “malicious actors” from monitoring people:
… We are not going to be the only ones who should be allowed to follow people without their permission – any company can do that, even smaller beginners and malicious actors.
The same employee posted a sarcastic attack on Levy ‘s post, along with a popular meme with the text “Are we the baddies?”
The only thing I hear, over and over again, is “this is bad for the businesses,” and I wish someone at the top would say openly, “People are better off if they don’t know what we ‘re’ do, if we don’t have to explain ourselves to them, if they don’t get the option to pull in or withdraw from our practices, if we turn it away as much as possible behind interesting features and then we get them to adopt surreptitious tracking on the back end while reducing it. “
Other critics have suggested that Facebook encourages opting to track advertising in a positive campaign rather than attacking the notion of opting in or out. -mach. Levy responded to complaints explaining that the campaign was not just “not about our business model.”
That’s Apple marketing working and convincing you to send us a scapegoat so they can decide how the internet should work – even beyond their devices. I am optimistic working in technology because I think tech can be a tool to democratize access and provide access. Incorporating businesses. And if you think this is going to stop with personalized ads … well, I agree.
Other comments from employees pointed out that the spiritual protection of small businesses was hypocritical because Facebook has erroneously curtailed small business advertisers ’advertising accounts and increasingly used automated customer support, following to a number of public complaints from small businesses:
[They] make it clear that we may not be doing what we can to “stand up for a little.” [businesses]“When we do not provide human messenger service support to small advertisers.
Facebook spokeswoman Ashley Zandy responded BuzzFeed News, argues that small business stories are Facebook ‘s priority:
Since the launch of this effort we have heard from literally small businesses around the world who are concerned about how these changes could hurt their businesses. Because this is such a critical time for [small- and medium-sized businesses], we will continue to share these stories with the public and our staff.
Following the launch of the campaign, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit organization that protects civil liberties in the digital world, called Facebook criticism of privacy measures related to “laughable” tracking.