Apple has responded to Facebook’s allegations following the latter’s full-page ad in some of the leading newspapers criticizing iOS 14’s upcoming ad-tracking changes. In its statement, Apple says that it is “standing up for our users,” and that its aim is to give users the choice on whether they would like to be tracked by advertisers across apps and websites or not.

The company also notes that App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 will not require Facebook to change the way it tracks users, instead it is simply giving users the choice of whether they want to be tracked or not.

We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not. App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.

Facebook has been heavily criticizing Apple for its ad-tracking changes in iOS 14. The social media giant has even gone on to claim in its full-page newspaper ad that the changes by Apple will be devastating for small businesses. Apple has received a fair bit of backlash from the industry over the ad-tracking changes in iOS 14. The feature was initially supposed to roll out with the release of iOS 14 but following the backlash, Apple delayed it until early 2021.

Once the ad-tracking feature is rolled out by Apple, users will see a prompt when they first open an app on whether they would like that publisher to track them across apps and websites. This tracking is what allows advertisers to show targeted personalized ads to users. There will also be an App Tracking Transparency feature that will allow users to see at a glance all the apps that have the permission to track them.