CFO says Apple carries some blame for issues at Meta

You might recall that when Apple announced its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature which allows iPhone users to opt out of being tracked by third parties intent on sending them personalized ads, Meta co-founder and Chairman Mark Zuckerberg was not happy with Apple. He paid for full-page ads that were printed in newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Meta blames Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature for its hiring freeze and drop in stock price

• Loss of signal from iOS changes (ATT).
• The war in Ukraine.
• The “general macroeconomic environment.”
• Easing of lockdowns resulting in people spending less time online.

Wehner’s memo makes it clear that Meta’s issue with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency has less to do with it hurting small businesses than with it hurting Meta. In the memo, the CFO writes, “We’re facing headwinds including slower revenue growth than anticipated at the start of the year.”

Global recruit chief Miranda Kalinowski sent a memo of her own stating that Meta will immediately put a freeze on the hiring of engineers. She wrote, “We’re still working out what this means for each org, but this will affect hiring goals for almost every team across the company. Based on this refreshed guidance, we know we need to adjust our hiring targets across the board starting with Eng[ineering].”

It would appear from her memo that engineering jobs related to Machine Learning will still be filled. Jumping back to CFO Wehner’s memo, the executive mentions Meta’s plan to replace the data lost due to Apple’s ATT using AI. In addition, the memo tries to put a happy face on Meta’s business prospects at the moment.

Apple says that App Tracking Transparency does not force Meta to make changes to its businesses

“We’re in a strong position with a healthy business, and we feel optimistic about the opportunities to re-accelerate growth, particularly through unlocking new revenue streams through Reels monetization, incorporating AI into our ads system to overcome signal loss from iOS changes, growing business messaging and bringing the metaverse to life,” the CFO wrote.

Apple points out, as it always has when pressed on the subject, that  App Tracking Transparency does not require Facebook to make any changes to its businesses. “We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not.”

 The Cupertino-based tech giant’s response states that “App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.”