ProtonMail: Social Media Revenue

Posted by admin on Monday, November 1, 2021

Since the apple App Store allowed users to decline data tracking by apps – nearly 70% choose not to allow and cost social media billions. @ProtonMail said:
 

 

“Social media giants lost nearly $10 billion in revenue since April because users chose not to be tracked across apps. Almost makes you think they mine personal data for profit or something” — @ProtonMail

 

 

In this quote, the privacy-focused email provider ProtonMail seems to be subtly criticizing large social media/tech companies that rely on collecting user data for targeted advertising revenue. Specifically:

• ProtonMail notes that from April to present, giants like Facebook/Google lost around $10 billion collectively due to Apple’s anti-tracking changes in iOS.
• This implies users value privacy enough to opt-out of cross-app monitoring when given a choice, costing these firms major ad income.
• ProtonMail then sarcastically suggests that maybe, just maybe, these companies “mine personal data for profit” – a clear jab that data harvesting is their primary business model.

The best interpretation is ProtonMail is taking a dig at tech platforms by pointing out the massive financial impact of even minor constraints on user data collection. The quote aims to underscore these firms’ overwhelming reliance on mining personal profiles to fuel ad sales and question whether user privacy or profits ultimately drive their behavior, at least from ProtonMail’s skeptical perspective on their data-based operations and incentives.

Social media giants lost nearly $10 billion in revenue since April because users chose not to be tracked across apps. Almost makes you think they mine personal data for profit or something.

— ProtonMail (@ProtonMail) November 1, 2021

Categories: business Tagged:billionprofitprotonmailrevenue