How is this new Apple "do not track" going to impact you, the end user, your experience, and your privacy? Join me for a thread. 1/13

As far as your privacy is concerned. It is going to stop some tracking. But apps can still track you on the app. So Facebook still knows what you like, what you post, who you interact with, what links you click on, etc. 2/13

This primarily impacts "third party data" and the sharing of data across the internet. So who are these shadowy third party data people?

Mostly, the websites you visit and the brands you interact with. 3/13

So what happens to these websites when they lose this data? They are less able to efficiently target you with advertising.

And you might say "I don't want to be targeted!" But let's see if that's true. 4/13

Untargeted ads are more like what you're skipping on TV. Big companies with big ad budgets who can afford to reach big audiences for brand awareness. Cars, food & beverage companies, big apparel companies, etc. 5/13

Facebook, for all of it's many many flaws, has allowed hundreds of thousands of small, cool companies to spring up and grow selling cool products to a small subset of people thanks to it's targeting capabilities. 6/13

Think about the ads you get served on FB & IG. Lots of small, companies selling stuff you're probably interested in. Sometimes really odd stuff, right? But you've probably bought stuff based on these ads. 7/13

But these advertisers are only able to advertise BECAUSE they have this data that flows between their website and Facebook. And now they don't. So many will no longer be able to compete in the advertising market. What does that mean for you? 8/13

It means fewer cool, niche products for your ads. It doesn't mean the advertising goes away. It means that all those cool little brands that show up in your ads now will be replaced by the same shitty advertising that's all over TV. 9/13

It also means that many of these small companies won't survive. These companies rely on the ability to target niche audiences with niche products. Not everybody is interested in a Datebox. (A cute preplanned date subscription box my GF gets b/c of an IG ad) 10/13

Datebox probably can't advertise to a really broad audience and be successful. And all of these brands rely on Facebook advertising. These brands exists BECAUSE of Facebook's targeting capabilities. They would not otherwise. 11/13

What is the end result of this change?

Apps can still track everything you're doing on them, so limited privacy improvement.

The cool ads for things you're interested in go away and are replaced by more mass market ads like you see on TV.

1,000s of small brands fail. 12/13

This move by Apple isn't about privacy. It's about giving a giant middle finger to Facebook and preferential treatment for it's own ad product.

It's going to degrade your experience and destroy lots of small businesses in the process. 13/13