Facebook survives on your private data, in fact that's pretty much all they are about these days. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 to extend their reach on private data.
Over the years, Facebook has been getting better at collecting and ultimately selling your private data to advertisers and anyone else willing to pony up the cash. What Facebook hasn't been vigilant about is protecting your data and is in numerous lawsuits as a result.
Facebook is not too happy about the recent changes Apple enforced with iOS 14.5 on app developers and private data. Under iOS 14.5, users will be able to opt out of the collection of private data in apps and have more control of what data they share.
Facebook is suggesting it will no longer be able to keep Facebook free if it cannot get access to this private data. After upgrading your iOS devices to 14.5 you will receive a pop up similar to the one below encouraging you to allow them to collect your private data. Instagram is doing the same thing when it detects iOS 14.5 on your device.
While Apple strictly forbids any incentive for enabling private data sharing and tracking, they have no released a statement on this practice yet. I suspect it won't be long until Apple speaks up and discourages this practice.
There was a report done back in 2013 I think that reported almost 70% of apps stole private data and over 35% of them collected data not related to the app. While this was a larger problem on Android, Google has been cracking down on this behavior as well.
Privacy is critical on the Internet in this day and age. Apps are trying to collect more data with fewer disclosures and with inadequate protections in place to secure it. Most individuals hacked are the result of third party compromised systems leaking important information enabling hackers to use it nefariously.
While I use Apple devices, I hate Apple with a passion, but do have a lot of respect for their recent stance on security. For years, they made jokes how PCs get viruses and Macs don't while having a completely irresponsible stance on security. In the last decade Apple has put on their big boy pants and started to take security seriously making their devices more secure than anything else out there.
I highly suggest you minimize the amount of personal data you willingly hand over and take every step to protect it. I deleted my Facebook & Instagram accounts a while ago and use as much random data as possible when creating accounts.
