"Some apps, such as The Sims, Venmo and Shake Shack have been seeking permission to track for a few weeks now. Facebook and its sister app Instagram began asking permission on Monday and the company says it will roll out the pop up — and a screen arguing why you should allow it to track — over the next few weeks. Facebook and other apps that make money by collecting our data and showing us hyper-targeted ads aren’t happy about having to ask permission. Mark Zuckerberg and friends have deluded themselves into thinking people enjoy feeling as though Facebook is eavesdropping on their conversations. (It doesn’t really need to because it’s already spying on our apps and websites.)"
From "Facebook now has to ask permission to track your iPhone. Here’s how to stop it. With the new iOS 14.5, apps have to seek your permission to track you. Here’s what to tap, and two privacy settings to change immediately" by Geoffrey A. Fowler (WaPo).
Good for Apple.
I wish WaPo would be more attentive to principles of journalism. "Mark Zuckerberg and friends have deluded themselves into thinking people enjoy...." That's not right! Don't go beyond the facts you know. Fowler has absolutely no way to know whether Zuckerberg and his friends have deluded themselves! Is this a mere slip? He should have written something like: Zuckerberg and friends claim that people enjoy....
If I had to guess about the inner life of Mark Zuckerberg, I would assume he wants wealth and power, and that involves continuing this practice, so he makes the best argument for it that he can. To say he's deluded is sort of sympathetic: He means well, but he just doesn't understand people accurately. That's a ludicrous sort of sympathy, and it's also insulting: He's dumb. He doesn't understand the human. I think he understands us all too well. He's the one with Facebook. He's the one with 100 billion dollars.
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