Putting The Driver Back Into Driver Assisted Systems

• Published date: 20 May 2021
• Subject Matter: Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Technology, IT and Internet, Advertising, Marketing & Branding, Social Media, New Technology
• Law Firm: JMB Davis Ben-David Ltd.
• Author: Mr Jeremy M. Ben-David

So is Facebook really and justifiably upset with Apple, or has Apple merely done for advertisers what Tesla should have done for its cars? And does Tesla need to stop?

OK, this probably sounds like I have just totally mixed up my cars, smartphones and social media.... but let me assure you that this is not the case. During the past few days, two stories on the technology section of the BBC website caught my eye. One of the stories, entitled Tesla: Elon Musk suggests Autopilot not to blame for fatal crash, was concerning a question as to whether Tesla's Autopilot was implicated in a fatal car crash in which two back seat passengers were killed in a Tesla car which apparently had no human driver at the time. This is not as sinister as it sounds. It seems that there are those who know how to use the Tesla Autopilot, which is no more than a driver assist system, as more of a driverless car feature, tempting people to put themselves completely at the mercy of a system that was never intended to be autonomous and thus driverless.

Meanwhile, hot on the heels of that story, was another one, entitled Facebook v Apple: The ad tracking row heats up, about the ongoing feud between Apple and Facebook. What's the problem? Advertising. More to the point, the IDFA (identifier for advertisers), a feature in the Apple phone operating system that allows advertisers to track users across their internet usage, so as to allow targeted advertising and higher sales. In case you're wondering about the stakes in this story, see Facebook's revenue from advertising, which apparently rose from $764 million in 2009 to $84 billion in 2020(!)

But still, what's the issue?

I'll tell you. Choice.

You see, until now, to their shame, Apple's operating system had the IDFA switched on by default, banking on the fact that most users would be unaware that this feature even existed, let alone that they could disable it Most smartphone users in the world live with the fact that we benefit from the vast wealth of information, sales and other offerings that the internet has to offer, and we don't even pay attention to things for which our permission should be required. For example, do we really want advertisers to be able to follow us, learn about our interests, and use that information to try and sell us...