The privacy wars are officially on! If you do not know what I’m talking about, welcome to the $80 billion shake-up, which is, of course, the Facebook Advertising Network (FAN). Google has set an official death date on the third-party cookie, Apple has positioned itself as the hero of privacy, and big tech finds themselves in court. So, what in the world is going on, and what does that mean for publishers and advertisers?

The latest news all surrounds Facebook and Apple, with the most recent IOS update. This update allows all to see how any app utilizes your data—not a great thing for data brokers. However, I’ve found this is not enough to make Americans give up their smartphones. It is a little scary to see, but to those of us privy to digital marketing—this is just a known fact in the industry. However, if your business model solely relies on Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), you might want to find a new line of business. Forbes declared IDFA’s death back in June; however, Apple was kind enough to delay the shock for several months.

“Apple’s potentially apocalyptic IDFA changes”

Dean Takahashi | @deantak

To understand, we must go back to 2010, where the mergers and acquisitions of big tech were under FTC scrutiny. Facebook, Google parent Alphabet and Amazon are certainly used to this type of scrutiny by now, but we had an election that changed everything. The very framework that was under such scrutiny was hacked by foreign adversaries, taking advantage of machine learning and artificial intelligence in ways that it was never supposed to work. In 2016, our country became politically polarized utilizing these systems (this is not a political conversation, just an explanation). Currently, big tech is ready for 2016… just a little too late. This is critical to understanding why these companies are taking such drastic steps.

Keep an eye out for much more to come on the exciting evolution of advertising!