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My concern with curbing Apple’s anti-competitive platform abuse is that they will pivot away from privacy into advertising/surveillance to make up for the lost

by crmd 2y ago

My concern with curbing Apple’s anti-competitive platform abuse is that they will pivot away from privacy into advertising/surveillance to make up for the lost revenue. Maybe as a consumer I’m better off leaving their ATM machine alone for now.

idle_zealot 2y ago
Apple is already doing this anyway. Their shtick is privacy, but they still locally collect data on you and use it to serve ads in the App Store, and I believe a few other surfaces like News and Stocks. The idea of the "if you're not the customer you're the product" dichotomy is fallacious. Any profit-motivated company will do everything it can to make money. Charge you upfront the maximum you're willing to pay. Spy on you to sell your attention to advertisers. Charge you in regular intervals the maximum the market will bear. If they're not already exploiting an avenue it's either because (a) they haven't gotten around to spinning up a business unit for it yet or (b) because their strategy is such that it would harm their revenue more than benefit it. Apple isn't going to shed its privacy marketing or privacy-oriented features. It is going to build richer user profiles and sell more attention to advertisers, whether they maintain control of app distribution on iOS or not.
- adamomada 2y ago
  Has there been any store in the history of stores that didn’t have advertising though? News has half the stories being corporate PR anyway, stocks app I’m not familiar with but it’s another version of a store. I feel these are pretty benign uses of advertising on their platform(s): - Apple TV shows ads about shows and movies - iOS tells you about system upgrades to help battle the constant inevitable security issues - Mac OS tells you about the latest Mac OS if you’re not running the latest Mac OS And I can’t think of any other ads Apple has sent my way.
  - standardUser 2y ago
    Apple uses your data in ways that they see fit to improve your user experience. The only material difference is that Google wants you to buy whatever from whoever pays them ad bucks, whereas Apple wants you to buy Apple products for Apple.
- matrix87 2y ago
  > Their shtick is privacy, but they still locally collect data on you and use it to serve ads in the App Store, and I believe a few other surfaces like News and Stocks. On mobile the only one that you need to interact with is the app store. On mac you don't need any of them At the end of the day their appeal is their UX, if the ads are too invasive like what MS did with windows then they'd just be shooting themselves in the foot
- icehawk 2y ago
  > (b) because their strategy is such that it would harm their revenue more than benefit it. Apple isn't going to shed its privacy marketing or privacy-oriented features. It is going to build richer user profiles and sell more attention to advertisers, whether they maintain control of app distribution on iOS or not. You dismiss that, but that's the point. No company has your best interests at heart, but I'll buy apple products until such time as their interests no longer align with mine. Then, I can just go buy cheaper things as they've lost their market advantage.
  - standardUser 2y ago
    Apple's interest is in generating social angst among young people to marginally increase their already-massive market share through ostracization. I can't imagine how that supports your interests.
    - lucasban 2y ago
      I don’t see that as an interest, as much as a method of achieving their interest (selling more iPhones). While the means are certainly questionable, in some sense the goal does align with that of their users - more people using iPhones will generally result in a better experience for existing users (partially due to the same decisions that generate social angst for others)
- SepTenno 2y ago
  [dead]
add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
They sell your traffic to Google for many billions of dollars. Believe me, they are not leaving surveillance revenue on the table. They just launder it well.
okanat 2y ago
A competent government will prevent those kinds of privacy abuses as well by enacting laws like GDPR and constantly updating them.
pompino 2y ago
>Maybe as a consumer I’m better off leaving their ATM machine alone for now. Or we can go after the surveillance side too. "As a consumer" IDGAF about lining Apple executives pockets.

by crmd 2y ago

idle_zealot 2y ago

Apple is already doing this anyway. Their shtick is privacy, but they still locally collect data on you and use it to serve ads in the App Store, and I believe a few other surfaces like News and Stocks. The idea of the "if you're not the customer you're the product" dichotomy is fallacious. Any profit-motivated company will do everything it can to make money. Charge you upfront the maximum you're willing to pay. Spy on you to sell your attention to advertisers. Charge you in regular intervals the maximum the market will bear. If they're not already exploiting an avenue it's either because (a) they haven't gotten around to spinning up a business unit for it yet or (b) because their strategy is such that it would harm their revenue more than benefit it. Apple isn't going to shed its privacy marketing or privacy-oriented features. It is going to build richer user profiles and sell more attention to advertisers, whether they maintain control of app distribution on iOS or not.

adamomada 2y ago
Has there been any store in the history of stores that didn’t have advertising though? News has half the stories being corporate PR anyway, stocks app I’m not familiar with but it’s another version of a store. I feel these are pretty benign uses of advertising on their platform(s): - Apple TV shows ads about shows and movies - iOS tells you about system upgrades to help battle the constant inevitable security issues - Mac OS tells you about the latest Mac OS if you’re not running the latest Mac OS And I can’t think of any other ads Apple has sent my way.
- standardUser 2y ago
  Apple uses your data in ways that they see fit to improve your user experience. The only material difference is that Google wants you to buy whatever from whoever pays them ad bucks, whereas Apple wants you to buy Apple products for Apple.
matrix87 2y ago
> Their shtick is privacy, but they still locally collect data on you and use it to serve ads in the App Store, and I believe a few other surfaces like News and Stocks. On mobile the only one that you need to interact with is the app store. On mac you don't need any of them At the end of the day their appeal is their UX, if the ads are too invasive like what MS did with windows then they'd just be shooting themselves in the foot
icehawk 2y ago
> (b) because their strategy is such that it would harm their revenue more than benefit it. Apple isn't going to shed its privacy marketing or privacy-oriented features. It is going to build richer user profiles and sell more attention to advertisers, whether they maintain control of app distribution on iOS or not. You dismiss that, but that's the point. No company has your best interests at heart, but I'll buy apple products until such time as their interests no longer align with mine. Then, I can just go buy cheaper things as they've lost their market advantage.
- standardUser 2y ago
  Apple's interest is in generating social angst among young people to marginally increase their already-massive market share through ostracization. I can't imagine how that supports your interests.
  - lucasban 2y ago
    I don’t see that as an interest, as much as a method of achieving their interest (selling more iPhones). While the means are certainly questionable, in some sense the goal does align with that of their users - more people using iPhones will generally result in a better experience for existing users (partially due to the same decisions that generate social angst for others)
SepTenno 2y ago
[dead]

add-sub-mul-div 2y ago

They sell your traffic to Google for many billions of dollars. Believe me, they are not leaving surveillance revenue on the table. They just launder it well.

okanat 2y ago

A competent government will prevent those kinds of privacy abuses as well by enacting laws like GDPR and constantly updating them.

pompino 2y ago

>Maybe as a consumer I’m better off leaving their ATM machine alone for now. Or we can go after the surveillance side too. "As a consumer" IDGAF about lining Apple executives pockets.