If you are an iPhone user, you will receive a query the first time you open each App after the release of version 14.5 update of the iOS system on April 26th.

For example, many foreign users click Facebook Inc, the first time there will be a pop-up window: allow Facebook Inc to track your activities on the App and websites of other companies?

I didn't have a choice in the past, but now of course I will click 'ask App not to follow'.

Apple Inc a small step, many Internet companies may be greatly affected, Facebook Inc bear the brunt.

After being unable to rely on iPhone to detect more user habits, the promotion effect of advertising will inevitably weaken, and Internet companies that rely heavily on advertisers for revenue can no longer be as confident as they used to be. And Facebook Inc, an American Internet giant whose advertising revenue reaches 98% of its total revenue and whose largest market is an American Internet giant where half of its people use iPhone, naturally took the first bullet.

Of course, Apple Inc would say that the new privacy rule is not aimed at anyone, but what has happened in the past few years has made Facebook Inc synonymous with the destruction of privacy, while Apple Inc is trying to make "privacy protection" another of his core competitiveness. Behind this, the feud between Cook and Zuckerberg has long been accumulated and highlighted again after this version update.

In June 2020, Apple Inc publicly announced that he would implement the APP Tracking Transparency (Application tracking Transparency) framework on iOS14 at the WWDC developer Conference, while Apple Inc CEO Cook revealed in an interview in early April that the new rule would be launched on iOS14.5.

Just before Cook was interviewed, APP Tracking Transparency was mentioned in a Clubhouse chat room at the end of March. It is Zuckerberg who is talking about him, and he sees this as his own advantage: "when companies cannot accurately advertise on Facebook Inc, it is likely that they will have to invest more on Facebook Inc." We may even be in a stronger position than before (It's possible that we may even be in a stronger position. ). "

Zuckerberg's public explanation is seen as a direct response to the risks posed by Apple Inc's new privacy policy. Facebook Inc's share price rose 5% on the day, breaking the highest one-day gain in six months. It can be seen that the market regards the tense relationship between Apple Inc and Facebook Inc as an important factor that determines the future of Facebook Inc.

Such bundling is not market wishful thinking either. On one side is the largest smartphone maker in the United States. On one side is the most influential social software platform in the United States. What seems to be a debate in the name of privacy is actually about the "money path" of the two companies.

The issue of user privacy has always been one of the grey areas of the Internet. The most direct beneficiaries of user privacy are advertisers who supply blood to Internet companies. To some extent, this has formed a delicate balance. Companies with advertising demand pay for advertising to Internet platforms like Facebook Inc, while Facebook Inc uses the capture of user behavior to place advertisements accurately.

On the other hand, users get the benefit of an almost free Internet environment in exchange for some privacy.

Facebook Inc, as an intermediate link, almost all his income comes from advertising. According to a recent full-year financial report, Facebook Inc's total revenue in 2020 reached $86 billion, of which advertising revenue was $84.2 billion, accounting for 98 per cent.

In this triangle play, there is no Apple Inc's part in it. But by 2020, the global active users of iPhone has exceeded 1 billion, and it has a great influence as a platform for distributing application software. This is especially true for Facebook Inc, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook Inc's troika is the most downloaded app in App Store. This, in turn, has made Facebook Inc worried about being pinned down by the platform. "this has made Facebook Inc executives increasingly worried, when Apple Inc delayed the release of Facebook Inc app updates on the app store several times," according to a person familiar with the matter quoted by the New York Times. These concerns are further intensified. "

As for Apple Inc, protecting user privacy has become the most important label it has created in recent years. On the one hand, this will win the trust of users, and more importantly, applications launched on iOS will become less attractive if they do not have enough user data to the advertisers behind them, which will cause more and more applications to switch from free downloads to fees, in which Apple Inc, as a platform, can collect more commissions.

All these reasons led to Cook and Zuckerberg dislike each other's positions, "friction", and the actions against each other began to be discussed under a magnifying glass in 2018.

On March 17, 2018, the New York Times and the Guardian simultaneously exposed the disclosure of Facebook Inc's 50 million user information data by a company called Cambridge Analytica. Facebook Inc's user loyalty was seriously damaged, causing the share price to plummet in a short period of time, wiping nearly $40 billion off the market capitalization. Five days later, Zuckerberg publicly claimed responsibility for the privacy leak and apologized.

Shortly after the incident, in a television interview with MSNBC (Microsoft Corp-National Broadcasting Corporation) at the end of March of that year, Cook quickly made up for it. Asked what he would have done if he were in Zuckerberg's situation, Apple Inc CEO replied that Apple Inc always pays attention to user privacy, "so he will never fall into this situation." This made Zuckerberg unhappy and publicly responded to Cook's comments as "totally inconsistent with the facts."

Just after the friction, the Wall Street Journal quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that Zuckerberg privately told employees that Facebook Inc needed to give Cook and Apple Inc "some hardship."

According to the New York Times, shortly after Cook was interviewed by MSNBC, Zuckerberg asked Facebook Inc's management team to ban the use of iPhone, and a number of articles attacking Cook and Apple Inc appeared on the news website NTK Network during the same period. Facebook Inc is also likely to be behind it.

In addition to this "little trick", Facebook Inc does seem to have reason to be angry because Apple Inc is not perfect either.

As Zuckerberg said, Apple Inc sometimes becomes a defendant when discussing privacy leaks. In May 2019, the Washington Post published a survey article showing that when Apple Inc's mobile phone allows applications to automatically refresh in the background, users' mobile phones will send data to enterprises at high frequency. The App involved includes Microsoft Corp OneDrive, Spotify, Yelp and so on, while the private information leaked includes sensitive information such as mobile phone number, mailbox, geographical location and so on. This is the same as Facebook Inc in the Cambridge Analysis incident.

The introduction of the APP Tracking Transparency framework in mid-2020 became another peak of debate between the two. As the framework, which is likely to threaten the foundation of Facebook Inc's business model, is nearing launch, Facebook Inc bought full-page advertising space in the newspaper in December of that year and joined forces with all small and medium-sized enterprises that rely on iOS ecology to oppose Apple Inc's strangulation of personalized advertising. Facebook Inc put himself behind small and medium-sized enterprises, stressing that before Apple Inc's privacy policy had a bad impact on large companies, the living environment of small businesses would collapse first.

As early as 2018, Definers, a public relations firm funded by Facebook Inc and other Apple Inc competitors, published anonymous articles criticizing Cook and campaigning for him to become a presidential candidate in 2020, "presumably to undermine his relationship with former President Trump," the New York Times reported. Facebook Inc had previously hired the public relations firm to cope with its negative impact during the US election campaign.

For Facebook Inc's repeated public opinion offensives, overt or covert, against Tracking Transparency and Apple Inc, Cook seems reluctant to go out directly. on the one hand, Apple Inc's growing platform capabilities are constantly criticized as a monopoly-it makes money from app developers while determining the life and death of these developers. Relevant regulators in the European Union and other regions have also begun to accuse it of relying on app store to suppress other competitors. In the war of words with Facebook Inc, Cook hopes to tell the outside world through his "aloof" attitude that Apple Inc is the just side. But Cook must also know that the feud between the two families will eventually break out more thoroughly.

When he recently responded on Twitter, he wrote: "We think users should have the right to choose whether their data is collected or used."

The words don't point to a specific small business or big company, but guess who he @ in the picture under this tweet?