A former Meta product manager has accused the company of deliberately bypassing Apple’s privacy protections and misleading advertisers. He claims Meta fired him after he repeatedly raised concerns about these practices inside the company.
Apple introduced its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in 2021. The policy required apps to get user consent before tracking activity across other apps and websites. Most users opted out, cutting into Meta’s advertising business, which depended heavily on targeted ads. At the time, Meta’s finance chief warned investors the change would cost the company around $10 billion in yearly revenue.
According to allegations, Meta sought ways to continue identifying Apple users even after they refused tracking permission. This included combining user data with other information to secretly follow activity across websites, a practice Apple explicitly prohibited under ATT.
Whistleblower’s Claims
The whistleblower, Samujjal Purkayastha, told a UK employment tribunal that Meta used a “closed and secretive” team to carry out the workarounds. His filings say the group deployed “deterministic matching,” a method of using identifiable information to connect user data across platforms in violation of Apple’s rules. He further alleges Meta overstated the value of advertising sales, misleading clients about the effectiveness of its platform.
In court filings cited by the Financial Times, Purkayastha says he was unlawfully dismissed for repeatedly raising these issues. He claims Meta’s internal culture shut down concerns instead of addressing them.
Meta, however, denies wrongdoing. The company maintains that Purkayastha’s dismissal was unrelated to his claims. The tribunal has not yet ruled on the matter and will hold a full hearing later this year.
