Today, Apple launched the much anticipated iOS 14.5 update with App Tracking Transparency (ATT), and this new release is likely to make the bad relation between Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg worse. In its new article, The New York Times details the origin of bad blood between the two powerful leaders of the tech industry, their vision, and the sentiments for each other business models.
It is reported that Zuckerberg shared an amicable relationship with Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs. The duo took walks and dined together, but Cook and Zuckerberg rarely see each other personally and meet at events like Allen & Company conference. On the contrary, Cook regularly meets with Google’s co-founder, Larry Page. The reasons for unfriendly acquaintance between Apple’s and Facebook’s chief executives are rooted in disliking each other’s policies.
After 50 million Facebook accounts were hacked, Tim Cook suggested to Mark Zuckerberg to delete users data
Before the 2016 U.S Election, over 50 million Facebook accounts were hacked, and that user information was alledged used by Cambridge Analytica to influence voters’ decisions and turn out. Mark Zuckerberg was strongly penalized by regulators and tech executives, including Cook for the huge security breach. Later in 2019, when the two executives met at a confab in Sun Valley, Idaho, the chasm between the two grew wider.
At the meeting, Mr. Zuckerberg asked Mr. Cook how he would handle the fallout from the controversy, people with knowledge of the conversation said. Mr. Cook responded acidly that Facebook should delete any information that it had collected about people outside of its core apps.
Mr. Zuckerberg was stunned, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Facebook depends on data about its users to target them with online ads and to make money. By urging Facebook to stop gathering that information, Mr. Cook was in effect telling Mr. Zuckerberg that his business was untenable. He ignored Mr. Cook’s advice.
Recently, 533 million Facebook accounts got hacked. Prior to that Cook had publically criticized Zuckerberg for privacy issues on his platform.
In 2017, a Washington political firm funded by Facebook and other Apple rivals published anonymous articles criticizing Mr. Cook and created a false campaign to draft him as a presidential candidate, presumably to upend his relationship with former President Donald J. Trump. And when Mr. Cook was asked by MSNBC in 2018 how he would deal with Facebook’s privacy issues if he was in Mr. Zuckerberg’s shoes, he replied, “I wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Recently, the announcement of the new ATT privacy update made the relationship more acrimonious. Worried about losing Facebook’s huge targeted ad revenue because of the ATT feature, Zuckerberg accused Apple of creating a monopoly, called App Store’s 30% commission rate “Apple Tax” and launched an ad campaign alleging that Apple was hurting small businesses and taking over free internet. It is also reported that Zuckerberg pushed the former Trump administration to launch an investigation into Apple. Luckily for users, unshaken by pressure, Tim Cook introduced the ATT privacy feature for be believes that privacy is a basic human right.
