WSJ: Meta and Apple are currently engaged in a dispute over advertising privacy.

It wasn't always that way, and the two almost paired up to share revenue before the switch, according to the WSJ. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has battled with the damage to company caused by changes that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) made to iOS privacy settings, but it wasn't always that way.

As more and more people restrict the data they allow to be shared, the iOS modifications to the default privacy settings have sparked a storm in digital advertising, forcing businesses to move billions of dollars in spending.

The modifications to iOS 14 might more than cut in half the business of Audience Network advertising, Meta, then Facebook, warned in the summer of 2020. And over the past year, Meta has suffered as a result of blows to its advertising, with Meta's stock price falling by more than 50%.

However, the WSJ stated that Apple (AAPL) had proposed revenue-sharing deals in the years prior to the transition. One concept involved developing an Apple-funded, subscription-based, ad-free version of Facebook.

The companies also discussed whether Apple would be entitled to a portion of Facebook's sales from "boosted" posts, in which users pay to increase a social media post's visibility (a practise that Facebook views as an advertisement because it is frequently used by small businesses to increase reach). Apple, on the other hand, thought about those in-app purchases, which would provide it a 30% cut.

According to the source, Facebook had also been pondering its own privacy-related adjustments at the time but held off in order to maintain a healthy ad business.

According to estimates, ad-selling social media companies including Facebook, Twitter (TWTR), Snap (SNAP), and YouTube (GOOG) have lost $17.8 billion as a result of Apple's privacy decision (GOOGL).

Jefferies assessed the significant (but varying) effects of Apple's adjustments on the social media names earlier this year.