There Is Hope For Humanity -- May 5, 2022

Sent to me by a reader. It's such a great memo I'm going to re-print it as I received it from the reader:

Meta To Hire Fewer People Than Expected, And Blames Apple 

BY Benzinga — 3:50 PM ET 05/05/2022

Meta Platforms Inc. -- the metaverse company previously known as Facebook Inc. -- recently lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history.

Now the company is rethinking its expansion plans and partly blaming it on Apple Inc.'s new pro-privacy policies.

What Happened: Meta internal memos meant for employees were reported by Business Insider on Thursday and show that the firm is enforcing a hiring freeze and reducing hiring targets.

The company said it is reprioritizing in a move that will impact "almost every team across the company."

The decision follows the company reporting "slower revenue growth than anticipated," partly "due to a number of factors including the loss of signal from iOS changes," according to Meta chief financial officer David Vehner.

He also wrote that the company is in the process of "incorporating AI into our ads system to overcome signal loss from iOS changes."

Privacy And Tech: The report follows Apple enacting the App Tracking Transparency Framework in 2020, which allows iOS device users to choose whether they wish to be tracked or not across apps and websites owned by other companies.

Meta starkly opposed giving mobile users the opportunity to choose whether they should be tracked, by negating to apps the access to the Identifier for Advertisers -- making it harder to target personalized ads to that user.

When Apple first rolled out the feature, Meta acquired a full-page ad in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post arguing the change is bad for small businesses and that it limits "how personalized ads can be used does impact larger companies like us."

Meta also wrote that Apple will "limit businesses' ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively."

The report follows Apple leaving the State Privacy and Security Coalition (SPSC) back in early April, accusing the group of lobbying for weak privacy laws that benefit the industry instead of the users. SPSC members include AT&T NYSE:T, Meta Platforms Inc. NASDAQ:FB Google owner Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ:GOOG NASDAQ:GOOGL and other major players in the technology and media industries -- which means that Apple is now clearly at odds with those.

The Apple tracking vs Metaverse frustration story is at least a year old. I was aware it was hurting Meta's bottom line.

I don't know if Apple was the first or how it all played out, but I do know that on any Apply product I'm on, when I go to a site that has the technology to track me, a dialogue box pops us and asks whether I want that site to track me. Out of habit I generally check "no" -- some exceptions -- but in the big scheme of things I really don't care one way or the other. 

But I certainly get a kick out of the Apple - Meta story. Pretty funny. 

************************************
The Recipe Page

Steak.

Oven.

Cast iron skillet. One of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

At this link be sure to read the social comments; lots of ideas. My favorite: 

Rub it with brown sugar, paprika, salt and pepper, sear for 2 minutes each side, then throw in 1/4 cup whisky, turn down to simmer and let it get up to 125 internal.