Facebook continues to fight Apple as Aussies start to get new 'tracking' approval pop-up notification

Facebook will this week begin testing a new notification to users on Apple iPhone devices ahead of a major change to Apple's privacy policy, which requires a pop-up notification and approval for any app that is tracking user data and movement across apps or websites.

The changes were announced in June last year, with Facebook beginning a public campaign against the changes in December.

Called App Tracking Transparency, the changes force a pop-up notification on any app which seeks permissions to track users across apps and websites on an iPhone.

Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to Facebook publicly in December, saying: "We believe users should have the choice over the data that is being collected about them and how it's used."

"Facebook can continue to track users across apps and websites as before, App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 will just require that they ask for your permission first."

As of this week, a small group of Australian Facebook users will begin to see the contentious pop-up message, as the social media giant begins testing the response to the changes.

Facebook will show their own message before the pop-up appears, with the hope that users will understand and choose to "allow" the in-app and cross-app tracking.

These tests will allow Facebook to prepare for the moment the notification becomes compulsory for all users, which is due to occur some time in the coming five months.

"Apple's new prompt is designed to present a false trade-off between personalised ads and privacy, when in fact, we can provide both," a Facebook spokesperson told 9News.

"Apple is doing this to self-preference their own services and targeted advertising products.

"To help people make a real choice, we're also showing a screen of our own to provide more information about how we use personalised ads, which support small businesses and keep apps free."

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Facebook's campaign against these changes aims to suggest to Aussies that such changes are a disadvantage to the many small businesses who use Facebook to advertise to prospective customers.

"Facebook is speaking up for small businesses. Apple's new iOS 14 policy will have a harmful impact on many small businesses that are struggling to stay afloat and on the free internet that we all rely on more than ever," Facebook said.

Small businesses can have their own app or website collecting data about customers, for example, in the form of a newsletter sign-up.

Facebook is suggesting that these new changes would prevent those businesses from using that data to then target ads to users directly.

It's yet to be seen how much of an impact this will have on small business or users, but it does appear Facebook believes most users will choose not to click "allow".

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Dan Levy, Vice President of Ads and Business Products for Facebook, said the company's move forward to testing the pop-up message will lead to stability for Facebook users.

"As we shared in December, we disagree with Apple's approach, but will be showing their prompt to ensure stability for the businesses and people who use our services," Mr Levy said in a blog post.

"To help people make a more informed decision, we're also showing a screen of our own, along with Apple's. It will provide more information about how we use personalised ads, which support small businesses and keep apps free."

Mr Levy said if you accept the prompts for Facebook and Instagram, the ads you see on those apps won't change.

If you decline, you will still see ads, but they will be less relevant to you.

"Agreeing to these prompts doesn't result in Facebook collecting new types of data. It just means that we can continue to give people better experiences," he said.

"We feel that people deserve the additional context, and Apple has said that providing education is allowed."

While Facebook claims Apple is making these changes to benefit their own advertising products (for example the App Store), Apple has made it clear the App Tracking Transparency rules and guidelines apply equally to Apple apps as they do third party apps.

Because the pop-up is not yet compulsory on iPhones, we can't yet see if Apple's own apps will need to display any notifications relating to their own use of data.

It's unknown how many Australians will see Facebook's message in the trial period, however all users will see it by the middle of the year.