Number Crunch
Apple’s Privacy Changes Are Working — For Apple’s Bottom Line
As the new privacy features impact data-led companies, Apple is lining its pockets
$142 billion: The amount of market value erased from ad-related company stocks after Snap Inc. posted its biggest ever one-day drop.
Apple caused a major stir in the digital world when it announced it would begin to restrict access to advertising data through its App Tracking Transparency feature earlier this year. The setting allows users to decide whether to share their information with an app and, unsurprisingly, the majority are saying no. Facebook was so concerned about the changes that it published a full-page ad — ‘Apple vs. the free internet’ — in response. (The irony).
The new data controls mean Facebook, and other data-using apps, are struggling to target their ads as effectively. Furthermore, once ad campaigns are over, collecting and analyzing the data has become more challenging. There has already been a swing in ad spending on Android as a result.
The impacts are being felt far and wide. On October 22, Snap Inc warned that Apple’s data collection rules were weighing on advertising spending, and its shares immediately dropped 27% — the company’s big ever one-day drop…