What you need to know
- Twitter has welcomed Apple's incoming iOS 14 privacy changes.
- CFO Ned Segal said the move would level the playing field.
- Apple is making it mandatory for developers to offer an opt-in option to IDFA tracking, a key feature of personalized ads.
Twitter's CFO Ned Segal has said the company is confident ahead of Apple's planned changes to iOS 14.
From CNBC:
Twitter CFO Ned Segal on Wednesday said the social media company is feeling confident as it prepares for Apple's planned privacy update to iOS 14, which will make it easier for iPhone and iPad users to block companies from tracking their activity to target ads.
Segal said "We look at the unique signal that Twitter has with a growing audience, with better formats and more relevance and the ability to better leverage that signal, much of which isn't tied to a device ID" whilst speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, saying "we feel really good about our ability to leverage that combination."
Apple announced in January that long-promised changes would be available broadly from "early spring" 2021 and were made mandatory in a developer released shortly thereafter. One of the best iPhone apps around, is clearly not worried about the move, in fact, it seems to welcome them.
Segal says the changes could actually "level the playing field", given that historically many companies were better than Twitter at leveraging "all of the data that was available to them, from the device ID to what people were doing on other websites". Segal said that all companies having the same set of new challenges would level the playing feel and have "a really interesting impact on the broader industry."
Segal said Twitter plans to sit back and wait, rather than immediately asking users whether they want to opt-in to tracking, noting "you only have one chance to ask somebody":
"We don't want to be in a rush around IDFA," he said. "You only have one chance to ask somebody if you can have access to their device ID to show them more relevant ads. You want to ask in a really thoughtful way, and you want to take time to learn from the industry and the broader ecosystem before you ask a question like that."
