5 ms·

How true is this? Is there any way to confirm what Apple says with respect to privacy? Serious question.

danso 9y ago
Confirm what exactly? That they as a company prioritize privacy in the design process? Or the technical aspects, such as FaceID/TouchID data not being uploaded, or selling user data to third-parties?
kawera 9y ago
We may never know for sure but at Apple's scale the cost of getting caught lying is just too high.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
gt_ 9y ago
Compared with the competition, they have little motive for not following through. Their business model doesn't rely on data collection, data redistribution or advertising whereas much of their competition does. Google gives data to other parties for income and so they would have little ground to make such promises. Instead, Apple's profits generally come from a hardware business with large margins thanks to outsourced overseas slave labor. Also, they have held their ground against heated government requests in the past.
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  They still have to give in to legal request and government request. I remember reading on HN that apple has a history of cooperating with law enforcement behind the scenes. Also they were in Prism.
ISL 9y ago
Indeed. Are there reproducible builds of open source software and firmware in iOS? It is my impression that it is still closed-source.
- tyfon 9y ago
  And until this is rectified, no-one should take their words on face value. It has to be verifiable, otherwise it's just words.
0xCMP 9y ago
There is not, but we hope that those who can check would have reported if it were otherwise. They certainly do for other products, and many of them rely on iOS these days over android for this reason, so I think it's safe to say if these features aren't up-to-snuff someone will check and find out. Like another said: At this scale Apple can't afford to be lying here.
biftek 9y ago
I suppose we don't really know, but I'd argue it's in their best business interest. No other major tech company seems interested and/or able to offer privacy, and Apple is well positioned to. It's a major competitive advantage.
Synaesthesia 9y ago
I think post the Snowden revelations, and considering the cheapness of hardware, we have to assume that pretty much any email, or online interaction can be intercepted (although not necessarily decrypted) by the NSA or government officials. Plus there’s the PRISM program whereby companies merely hand over their records. Apple have said they comply with such requests, and therefore your iCloud account is not private in that respect.
bigbugbag 9y ago
The document reads as PR and novlang so it's probably not much more than that. They still operate under US law so cannot really enforce user privacy. Code is closed and proprietary hence relies on blind trust. Depending on your threat model Apple might not provide the kind of privacy you need.

Confirm what exactly? That they as a company prioritize privacy in the design process? Or the technical aspects, such as FaceID/TouchID data not being uploaded, or selling user data to third-parties?

kawera 9y ago

We may never know for sure but at Apple's scale the cost of getting caught lying is just too high.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

gt_ 9y ago

Compared with the competition, they have little motive for not following through. Their business model doesn't rely on data collection, data redistribution or advertising whereas much of their competition does. Google gives data to other parties for income and so they would have little ground to make such promises. Instead, Apple's profits generally come from a hardware business with large margins thanks to outsourced overseas slave labor. Also, they have held their ground against heated government requests in the past.

bigbugbag 9y ago
They still have to give in to legal request and government request. I remember reading on HN that apple has a history of cooperating with law enforcement behind the scenes. Also they were in Prism.

ISL 9y ago

Indeed. Are there reproducible builds of open source software and firmware in iOS? It is my impression that it is still closed-source.

tyfon 9y ago
And until this is rectified, no-one should take their words on face value. It has to be verifiable, otherwise it's just words.

0xCMP 9y ago

There is not, but we hope that those who can check would have reported if it were otherwise. They certainly do for other products, and many of them rely on iOS these days over android for this reason, so I think it's safe to say if these features aren't up-to-snuff someone will check and find out. Like another said: At this scale Apple can't afford to be lying here.

biftek 9y ago

I suppose we don't really know, but I'd argue it's in their best business interest. No other major tech company seems interested and/or able to offer privacy, and Apple is well positioned to. It's a major competitive advantage.

Synaesthesia 9y ago

I think post the Snowden revelations, and considering the cheapness of hardware, we have to assume that pretty much any email, or online interaction can be intercepted (although not necessarily decrypted) by the NSA or government officials. Plus there’s the PRISM program whereby companies merely hand over their records. Apple have said they comply with such requests, and therefore your iCloud account is not private in that respect.

bigbugbag 9y ago

The document reads as PR and novlang so it's probably not much more than that. They still operate under US law so cannot really enforce user privacy. Code is closed and proprietary hence relies on blind trust. Depending on your threat model Apple might not provide the kind of privacy you need.