A number of Facebook Inc. ads today criticized Apple Inc. over changes to its upcoming iOS 14 operating system.

The full-page ads appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, each carrying the headline, “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.”

That’s a criticism of Apple’s decision to protect user privacy and limit targeted advertising, a model that Facebook has relied on for most of its revenue. Facebook hardly mentioned its own losses, an omission that some media have alluded to as being disingenuous of the company.

In the new OS, developers will need permission from users before any kind of data tracking can happen, something Facebook said will be “devastating” for small businesses who rely on tracking to target users for customized ads. Facebook seems to believe Apple’s motivations are selfish rather than benevolent.

“They’re creating a policy — enforced via iOS 14’s AppTrackingTransparency — that’s about profit, not privacy,” Facebook said in a blog post. “It will force businesses to turn to subscriptions and other in-app payments for revenue, meaning Apple will profit and many free services will have to start charging or exit the market.”

In a separate blog post, Facebook said that personalized ads don’t have to be at odds with user privacy. The company reiterated that many small businesses rely on such ads for growth and don’t require a large budget in the process.

“Personalization doesn’t have to come at the expense of privacy,” said Facebook. “We can do both, and we can do both well. We’ve built products that lead the industry in transparency and offer settings and controls to help people manage their privacy.” Indeed, if people are concerned about how they’re being tracked, there are options to manage privacy on Facebook, although there isn’t an option to be completely invisible.

Apple said as much to Bloomberg, stating that the changes won’t stop Facebook from tracking users, but it will ensure that those users have the choice to turn tracking off. Apple said it’s concerned “about users being tracked without their consent and the bundling and reselling of data by advertising networks and data brokers.”

The acrimony intensified further today when Facebook announced it would back Epic Games Ltd. in a lawsuit over the banning of the game Fortnite from the App Store. According to Facebook, this is another example of Apple’s “unfair policies.”

Photo: StockCatalog/Flickr