Oliver Haslam on March 20, 2021, 3:10 am

Zuckerberg Now Says Facebook Will Be In a Stronger Position Thanks To Apple’s Privacy Push

Apple’s work to increase the privacy afforded its users by preventing them from being tracked without their knowledge already had the attention of Mark Zuckerberg.

The Facebook CEO and founder was most upset, complaining that asking people for their permission when tracking them for advertising purposes would impact small businesses. Now, however, he’s changing his tune.

In fact, Zuckerberg now says that Facebook could actually be in a “stronger position” thanks to Apple’s stance.

CNBC reports that Zuckerberg made the remarks in a Clubhouse room.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said he is confident the social media company “will be able to manage through” Apple’s upcoming planned privacy update to iOS 14, which will make it easier for iPhone and iPad users to block companies from tracking their activity to target ads.

“We’ll be in a good position,” Zuckerberg said Thursday afternoon in Josh Constine’s PressClub Clubhouse room.

Apple is set to force apps to ask permission before they track users via the IDFA, a unique identifier specific to them and their devices. It’s that IDFA that ad companies need, and Facebook said that asking permission would mean a loss of ads.

Now, not so much.

“It’s possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms,” Zuckerberg said.

That’s quite the change of tune for Zuckerberg and one that will be welcomed by privacy fans. Even if it’s more self-serving than any real privacy push from Facebook itself.