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I am literally a crusader against ad-based business models, but this article seems very hand-wavey to me. First off, Apple is in the privacy business as a prod
by laurex 5y ago
I am literally a crusader against ad-based business models, but this article seems very hand-wavey to me.
First off, Apple is in the privacy business as a product positioning stance, not as an actual guiding force for their business.
Second, Apple doesn't prevent anyone from using another search engine as a default, and the vast majority of people are quite comfortable using Google, even if it is completely shady on the privacy front.
Third, these giant tech companies work together by design- they all feed off each other due to the fundamental driver of "shareholder value." Instead of having any expectation that they will choose user safety and health over profit, we need to explore other avenues to address the rampant and destructive aspects of ad-driven tech economies.
- utopcell 5y ago> they all feed off each other due to the fundamental driver of "shareholder value." Kudos for not resorting to hand-wavey statements yourself.
- wayneftw 5y ago> Apple doesn't prevent anyone from using another search engine as a default. In Safari on iOS, where this deal is relevant, they do. There is no choice for using Yandex or StartPage among many others. There are just 5 choices.
- laurex 5y agoI stand corrected (though they do offer DuckDuckGo, which seems like the biggest 'privacy-oriented' player). Are you suggesting that the deal with Google is responsible for the omission of Yandex or StartPage, though? I would guess it's for other reasons, such as user experience or reluctance to vet and endorse less-frequently used engines.
- wayneftw 5y agoPersonally I would want freedom to just put whatever URL I want, as my search engine. Every popular desktop browser has this feature and I don't see why it could not exist on the iPhone. I bet Apple would claim that it's "taking away options to help people".