>But in the five years since 2014, the following fact has become absurdly clear to me: there is no difference between privacy and security. Security is an illus

>But in the five years since 2014, the following fact has become absurdly clear to me: there is no difference between privacy and security. Security is an illusion, just like the lock on your front door. Advanced cryptography can prevent immediate threats, but in the long run, it is impossible to keep things private at scale. Humans can only build flawed software. There will always be bugs. And thus your “private” information is not now and will never be safe in the hands of a third party, no matter how competent. The only solution is to keep the information within only your control, and that is how Apple has attempted to architect its systems. >And: (2) If, after Snowden, Experian, and countless other examples of leaks, you think security is going to protect your privacy, you are either ignorant or insane. This feels incoherent. Security is exactly what Apple is leaning on, e.g. by designing iMessage so they themselves can’t read the content. And just like Google, they are also asking you trust them, e.g. to not release an update that uploads all of your plain text messages to Apple. What’s different is the size and nature of the attack surfaces, how distributed vs. centralized they are, and how each company agrees to use the data they do legitimately collect. There are interesting, persuasive arguments to be made in favor of the different approaches out there, but I think it’s important to have conceptual clarity.