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Ah yes. Since they've started to pretend to care about privacy, they can now justify anything they do by waving the privacy banner. That excuse is frankly pathe

Ah yes. Since they've started to pretend to care about privacy, they can now justify anything they do by waving the privacy banner. That excuse is frankly pathetic since they haven't demonstrated a serious commitment to privacy for so long yet. [maybe they have but i don't remember]

Google234 5y ago
Apple has been talking about privacy for a long time. Your last statement is quite demonstrably false.
- julienreszka 5y ago
  Well what do you make of the NSA Prism program to which Apple participates? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants...
  - Google234 5y ago
    That doesn’t refute my general point or do much to substantiate the earlier assertion that apple had done nothing wrt privacy. Nice try though ;) What’s next? You going to use that same article to argue that the USA is equivalent to North Korea?
    - julienreszka 5y ago
      I didn't mention North Korea, why are you talking about North Korea? What does North Korea have to do with the subject matter?
  - voltaireodactyl 5y ago
    Keeping individual’s data private from companies and scammers (i.e. NOT state level actors) is privacy. Keeping individual’s data from a government agency that has a legal right to it (I.e PRISM) is breaking the law. This is not a value judgement on the ethical nature of said state actors. But that’s the difference — one is legal and desirable for all consumers, so they can pursue it. One is illegal and would put them in violation of federal law, so of course a public company cannot.
  - clarge1120 5y ago
    This is disturbing.
threatofrain 5y ago
I really like Apple's direction on privacy so far, and I think they've taken privacy as a feature further than any other company. The weighing of leverage is more or less how the market has and still works to this day. Thus if you send me or my family out there to negotiate with Popeye's (which really wants you to create an account), or Walmart, Facebook [1], or even a small company making todo apps, I will simply not win, and neither will my family members. I love that cross-app tracking is now opt-in, because that's not something I'd ever imagine negotiating with any company, ever. I love the fact that all subscription-based services purchased through the iOS platform can be managed in a centralized place. I love that companies that provide services on iOS must provide a way to register with Apple's anonymous account service. I love that companies seeking payment on the iOS platform must support Apple Pay, which protects my payment information. Without Apple I'm not sure how you'd ever negotiate these things to happen. [1]: https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/30/facebook-research/ https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/30/facebook-research/
- smaccona 5y ago
  Disclosure: I own and use Apple hardware both for personal and business use. I am less than perfectly happy with both their mobile and general computing platforms (especially the latter, macOS, which crashes with alarming irregularity for me). The parent comment raises a point which I frequently see in HN threads: Apple, despite deficiencies, solves concrete privacy problems for regular, non-tech users, often in ways the users haven’t thought of ahead of time. I often see comments such as these upvoted; yet they have no responses, neither in the form of rebuttals nor supporting confirmations. What gives here? Is there some silent majority which prefers not to weigh in on these matters, or is this merely observation bias oh my part? Edit: syntax
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

Google234 5y ago

Apple has been talking about privacy for a long time. Your last statement is quite demonstrably false.

julienreszka 5y ago
Well what do you make of the NSA Prism program to which Apple participates? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants...
- Google234 5y ago
  That doesn’t refute my general point or do much to substantiate the earlier assertion that apple had done nothing wrt privacy. Nice try though ;) What’s next? You going to use that same article to argue that the USA is equivalent to North Korea?
  - julienreszka 5y ago
    I didn't mention North Korea, why are you talking about North Korea? What does North Korea have to do with the subject matter?
- voltaireodactyl 5y ago
  Keeping individual’s data private from companies and scammers (i.e. NOT state level actors) is privacy. Keeping individual’s data from a government agency that has a legal right to it (I.e PRISM) is breaking the law. This is not a value judgement on the ethical nature of said state actors. But that’s the difference — one is legal and desirable for all consumers, so they can pursue it. One is illegal and would put them in violation of federal law, so of course a public company cannot.
- clarge1120 5y ago
  This is disturbing.

threatofrain 5y ago

I really like Apple's direction on privacy so far, and I think they've taken privacy as a feature further than any other company. The weighing of leverage is more or less how the market has and still works to this day. Thus if you send me or my family out there to negotiate with Popeye's (which really wants you to create an account), or Walmart, Facebook [1], or even a small company making todo apps, I will simply not win, and neither will my family members. I love that cross-app tracking is now opt-in, because that's not something I'd ever imagine negotiating with any company, ever. I love the fact that all subscription-based services purchased through the iOS platform can be managed in a centralized place. I love that companies that provide services on iOS must provide a way to register with Apple's anonymous account service. I love that companies seeking payment on the iOS platform must support Apple Pay, which protects my payment information. Without Apple I'm not sure how you'd ever negotiate these things to happen. [1]: https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/30/facebook-research/ https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/30/facebook-research/

smaccona 5y ago
Disclosure: I own and use Apple hardware both for personal and business use. I am less than perfectly happy with both their mobile and general computing platforms (especially the latter, macOS, which crashes with alarming irregularity for me). The parent comment raises a point which I frequently see in HN threads: Apple, despite deficiencies, solves concrete privacy problems for regular, non-tech users, often in ways the users haven’t thought of ahead of time. I often see comments such as these upvoted; yet they have no responses, neither in the form of rebuttals nor supporting confirmations. What gives here? Is there some silent majority which prefers not to weigh in on these matters, or is this merely observation bias oh my part? Edit: syntax
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]