Shira Ovide, Columnist

Apple Throws a Wrench in Facebook's Data-Gathering Engine

It's now essentially forcing people to repeatedly decide whether they will allow Facebook to track information on their web browser actions.

Get ready for some changes.

Photographer: NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Apple's software-focused event on Monday was a momentous moment — for Facebook Inc.

Toward the tail end of a more than two-hour Apple presentation to software developers, the company announced changes to its Safari web browsers that — assuming they remain unchanged and function as Apple sketched out — seem set to seriously hamper Facebook's contentious data-harvesting practices, and those of many other internet companies that count on following people as they roam around the web.