As customer concern on privacy grows Apple are taking steps to let iPhone users choose to block ads that appear to them due to their previous activity as well as allowing data to be collected while using iPhone apps.
This spring sees a major privacy update to iPhones’ IOS that will stop companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from collecting data activity without user knowledge. This effectively kills dead ad retargeting on iPhones as well as the activities collected while using these apps being used to retarget users on any device including desktop browsers.
The move has obviously annoyed, to say the least, Facebook as well as Google and marks a push to stop Facebook ads and Google Adwords retargeting in its tracks.
“If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are not choices at all, then it doesn’t deserve our praise, it deserves reform,” Apple’s Tim Cook said Thursday at the online Computers, Privacy & Data Protection Conference.
Cook criticized companies that exploit user data and browsing habits used to retarget ads to users without explicit content from the user.
The move comes at a time where big data is king, and the companies using it for profit from their own customers has reached a tipping point.
“If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are not choices at all, then it doesn’t deserve our praise, it deserves reform,” Cook said.
The update to iPhones that rolls out in spring gives every user the explicit right to choose if they want to share their data on installs and using and apps that collect this data.
What does this mean to the music industry and artists with pages on Facebook and Instagram?
Any artist relying on reaching fans via their Facebook page need to think now about how to use this next month or two to move fans to a platform that doesn’t charge you to reach your own fans before it’s too late. Already only 1% of fans or follow artist pages even get a chance to see your posts. With these well overdue updates, retargeting users with Facebook pixels will also be off the table. Gone are the days of social media platforms being a place for artists to collect fans and market to them.
the message is loud and clear; Get your fans off socials and into a place where you own the relationship directly. This doesn’t just mean collecting email addresses either. Email engagement is old fashioned and rarely used at all by Gen Z, and with often single-digit open rates only solves some of the problems. How will fans engage with artists? How will artists post about what they are doing? How will fans respond? Engagement is not, as so many seem to believe, a “Like”. Connecting with fans is much much more.
So, what’s the message here? Get your fans to a safe space. Give them a community to engage with each other as well as the artist. Let’s call it what it really is, a fan club space.
FanCircles is here for just that. To provide 100% reach to your fans, with algorithms and user tracking. This move by Apple does not affect what we do. We’re already been aware of privacy and protecting users’ privacy. It’s key to a successful engagement strategy and growing fandom.
Author: Kevin Brown
Kevin, the CEO of FanCircles, is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in both the tech and music industries. He has managed arena-level artists and founded Affiliate Window (Awin.com), which he successfully exited in 2012 after its acquisition by Axel Springer. Recognizing the needs of artists and labels to connect directly with fans, he embarked on the journey of establishing FanCircles.
