Are you suggesting that Apple and Facebook normally have these kinds of discussions in public? Because that is not at all the case.
Possibly there is something nefarious going on here. But the fact these talks were secret means nothing, since all talks between companies are secret by default.
It seems part of a larger campaign to force apple to drop tracking protections by making these efforts appear not as privacy protection, but rather an anti-competitive strategy to boost their own ads sales.
HN is falling over themselves in the process. Anyone that tells you that tracked ads are just about matching your preferences is lying to you on purpose.
Even though I am glad this whole Anti-Ad thing is finally receiving some push back, I do agree and I am slightly suspicious of some PR push behind it. But I will give them benefits of doubt because it could also be people finally waking up to Apple's insane Hypocrisy.
For both it’s the same faulty arguments that are built around a false equivalence that all types of data collection are the same and aggressively downplaying the harm of tracked ad networks. They also happen to be full of technical mistakes that are incorrect enough to be intentional lying.