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Say what you want about Apple but they are by far the most privacy focused big company. Their income is from selling physical devices. Typical megacorps in 2020
by LC_ALL 6y ago
Say what you want about Apple but they are by far the most privacy focused big company. Their income is from selling physical devices. Typical megacorps in 2020 are leveraging economies of scale to sell their users' attention. Apple has a unique value add in that when their users benefit they benefit.
Sent from my Thinkpad.
- secondcoming 6y agoApple had its own advertising platform called iAd that was abandonded a few years ago. Cynical me thinks that them disabling the IDFA could be a ploy for them to corner the adtech market for themselves.
- confiq 6y agonow you have [Apple Search Ads](https://searchads.apple.com/ https://searchads.apple.com/) instead of iAd
- speedgoose 6y agoWhy don't they fully encrypt the icloud backups? Sent from my Huawei.
- tchalla 6y agoWhat do you think are the possible issues for full encryption of iCloud backups?
- dannyw 6y agoPressure from the FBI, according to Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive-idUSKBN1ZK1CT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
- EwanToo 6y agoThis is the issue with iCloud backups not being encrypted: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUKKBN1ZK1CT https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive... Not saying I agree or disagree with it, but it's something worth highlighting
- sbuk 6y agoNews agencies get things wrong. 'Sources' are often times extremely unreliable, or don't always present the whole picture. Not that I'm absolving Apple here, just that I've been indirectly on the receiving end of 'sources' and Reuters being technically right, but very, very wrong.
- TruthSHIFT 6y agoOne important implication of not using full encryption is that it protects users from themselves. If a user forgets their password, Apple can still unlock their data. From a security perspective, this obviously isn't ideal. But, from the perspective of the average user who has lost all of their data, this is great.
- elliekelly 6y agoI should be given the choice to turn it on though. I understand Apple not wanting to deal with the annoying customer who forgets their password, loses everything, and blames Apple. I’ve seen enough forgotten password people while waiting at the Genius Bar to sympathize with Apple. But just because some of their customers can’t handle the responsibility doesn’t mean none of their customers should have the option. I encrypt my hard drive despite Apple’s warnings about FireVault. I understand the risk, have weighed the pros and cons, and have taken steps to mitigate the risk.
- bt1a 6y agoIt is very typical of Apple, unfortunately, to leave out power features in order to focus on excelling at the basics. I switched to an iPhone from a rooted Android a few years ago, and while I do miss that level of control, I don't have to worry about the overhead that that type of Android device commands.
- zepto 6y agoI entirely agree with this, and I expect this is what will happen over time. But, just like with FileVault, the roll out will most likely be relatively slow and progressive.
- rekoil 6y agoEvery big iPhone/iOS keynote I think "this is the year!", but it never happens .
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- xondono 6y agoTechnically speaking, their income is from selling services to the people the’ve sold physical devices. It’s also a good way to combat the push from companies like Google to bring down the prices of devices to allow for better tracking.
- fsflover 6y agoTheir walled garden leads to users vulnerable to every Apple's decision. Sent from my Pinephone.
- qdhqdhqdg 6y agoNot hard to be the most privacy focused big company when the competition Google , Facebook or Amazon... I don't understand why we should always have good guys and bad guys and we can't accept that none of those company respect us. Nothing will change if we relay Apple's propaganda about privacy. People will think that the solution is already there and it's Apple. And it's not. Apple has catastrophic Privacy, just a bit less catastrophic than Google but that's it. They don't even encrypt your cloud, how's that remotely close to "privacy focused company"
- shawnz 6y agoAgreed, we should be careful not to champion them as the saviours of consumer privacy just because they have lately been marketing themselves as an improvement over Google and Microsoft.
- HatchedLake721 6y agoThey haven't just "lately been marketing themselves as an improvement over Google and Microsoft". Anyone aware of Apple's history knows that Apple has always pushed consumer privacy forward, forcing others in the industry to follow. I don't know any other consumer electronics company other than Apple that has been championing consumer privacy so much over the last 12-15 years. If you learned about Apple's stance on privacy only in their recent marketing, that doesn't mean they haven't been doing it before.
- shawnz 6y agoWhat are they doing that other vendors aren't? From what I can tell their privacy-forward marketing began with the rollout of the Secure Enclave in the 5S, but Android vendors were already using hardware key stores and full disk encryption at that time. I will admit that this action to change the advertising ID to default-off is a promising one though.
- HatchedLake721 6y agoThis is a good overview from last week what they've done so far (where others had to follow) and what they're doing next https://youtu.be/08IC1AZTxls?t=2941 https://youtu.be/08IC1AZTxls?t=2941
- swiley 6y agoIMO Pine64 is more privacy respecting than Apple. I don't have to send them an email address to install software and I don't have to send them my drivers license to be allowed to compile it.
- madeofpalk 6y ago> I don't have to send them my drivers license to be allowed to compile it You do not need to send Apple your drivers license to compile software for Apple hardware.
- swiley 6y agoThey had me send my license the last time I tried, I guess now you can do it for free for your own devices although you still need a mac and an online developer account.
- caddywompus 6y agoIt's odd though, they have these contradictory actions. For the iPhone, they are pushing for privacy, but on MacOS, we are now dealing with things like excessive telemetry to the point of phoning a authorization server for running local binaries. Not to mention the new firewall issues, where Apple utilities are able to bypass local firewall rules.
- zepto 6y agoSurely you know this ‘telemetry’ statement isn’t really true. They use badly designed open protocol to do certificate revocation. It’s not like they designed this as a way to collect user data.
- caddywompus 6y agoPerhaps they don't intend to use the data as telemetry, but regardless, intentionally or not, they are receiving information about what you are running, even if it were just a hash of the binary. So you're right, it would be a trivially small information leak, but I'd like to think a company focused on privacy wouldn't resort to such an aggressive protocol. I haven't followed this very closely, has anyone determined exactly what is being sent?
- pradn 6y agoApple gets on the order of $12 billion a year from Google to make Google Search the default search engine in iOS. All that money comes from ads. They care about privacy until it hits their pocketbook.
- Laarlf 6y agoIf I’m looking at HomeKit for example, this is not true. Also people would want google anyway. After all it’s still the most useful search engine for almost everyone. Apple is primarily still a device maker for people who want stuff to justwerk and people who have no interest in tech.
- snarf21 6y agoAnd they will probably have to stop doing so very soon.
- alwillis 6y agoApple gets on the order of $12 billion a year from Google to make Google Search the default search engine in iOS. All that money comes from ads. It's a lot of money, but it's pocket change for Apple in the scheme of things—$220 billion in hardware revenue and a $2 trillion market cap. Google needs to pay it far more than Apple needs the money. Google knows Apple customers are far more lucrative than Android customers.
- pradn 6y agoGoogle needs it more since Google makes > $12 billion on that traffic, but I can't imagine any company being willing to part with $12+ billion a year.
- thewebcount 6y agoThat's a rich sentiment considering the article is written by Mozilla who gets the some money for the same purpose!
- pradn 6y agoYes, that same hypocrisy applies to Mozilla. And it's been a total and unfortunate way to run a nonprofit - getting money from a direct competitor that wants to pay you as little as possible. The lower the browser market share, the worse their negotiating position got. I wish they had come up with an alternate revenue stream.
- fbelzile 6y ago> Their income is from selling physical devices. Not entirely true anymore: 1) About $8-12 billion paid by Google to have their search engine default. [1] 2) About $20 billion from their 15-30% cut of third party app developers. Where the App Store is protected from competition. [2] 3) Apple services (like Apple TV+), which collects usage data for itself and third parties. [3] [1] https://www.macrumors.com/2020/10/25/google-apple-search-default-8-12-billion/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/10/25/google-apple-search-def... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/15/21292203/apple-app-store-ios-apps-billings-revenue-517-billion-2019-antitrust-regulation https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/15/21292203/apple-app-store-... [3] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208511 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208511
- pwinnski 6y agoApple revenue for the last year was $275 billion. So you've listed 3.5%, 7%, and probably-rounds-to-0% of their revenue, which doesn't seem like it actually counters the original point.
- fbelzile 6y agoAs you correctly point out, those are revenue figures, not profit. $10 billion from Google out of $60 billion in profit is significant. Apple saying they 'care' about privacy while making +15% of its profits from Google alone is hypocritical.
- t-writescode 6y agoYou just spun terms in your own comment. > those are revenue figures, not profit > $10 billion from Google out of $60 billion in profit is significant
- orangepanda 6y agoWhat expenses are there to keep google the default engine?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6y agoThat's a very good point. Their primary revenue stream is from hardware or sources that aren't based on collecting user data. I also think this is why Apple and Microsoft have bright futures but companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook will only see more legal hurdles from here on out.
- Dahoon 6y agoApple is doing everything they can for privacy... as long as it pushes customers in the direction of Apples as service. That is the whole point. PR and abuse of market position to further their own service.
- karmakaze 6y agoI treat Apple being privacy-focused the same way I treat a politician that has a platform that I like: alignment of interests at the present moment. It doesn't mean that we want the same thing for the same reasons.