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Facebook has announced that it has decided to ask iPhone users if they want a ‘better ad experience’. The decision follows a new policy by Apple for apps in the App Store.

In a blog post, Facebook says that the company disagrees with Apple’s decision, but has decided to cooperate anyway. However, the company again emphasises that it does not agree that there is a trade-off between personalised ads and privacy, and claims that it knows how to combine the two. Also, Apple’s notification would not provide context about ‘the benefits of personalised ads’.

‘To help people make a more informed decision’, Facebook is adding its own notification to the pop-up. That notification provides more information about how Facebook uses personalised ads. The company emphasises that the ads help small businesses and keep products free. Facebook emphasises that users who reject the notification will still see ads. They just won’t be personalised anymore.

Earlier than expected

The update comes earlier than expected. Apple announced that it would be adding a change to the App Store in the coming months that requires apps with ads that create profiles of users to ask permission first. Apps that do not do this will be excluded from the App Store.

Last week it was announced that Apple wanted to add the requirement to the App Store ‘this spring’. From then on, users will see a pop-up asking if they want to share their data for advertising purposes. By starting the rollout of the app now, Facebook is early.

This is remarkable, since Facebook is one of the biggest opponents of the policy. Both Facebook and Google have expressed their displeasure about the change. The companies think that this will lead to lost revenues. Both companies are strongly dependent on the income from personalised advertisements.