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One of my biggest fears for a floundering Apple is that they start to depart from their commitment to privacy-first design. The reasons for Apple Intelligence'
by btown 1y ago
One of my biggest fears for a floundering Apple is that they start to depart from their commitment to privacy-first design.
The reasons for Apple Intelligence's relative lackluster abilities are numerous and, from everything we hear, primarily political - but I'm certain some executives are questioning whether initiatives like Private Cloud Compute [0] were holding them back. And with app store revenue under siege, some must be questioning whether Apple could get a larger cut of the advertising market to make up for their losses... and such a push would come with all the cross-app tracking implications that are necessary to be competitive there.
IMO this would be a foundational mistake, and a massive tragedy. So many of us choose Apple products not only because of the silky-smooth interactions that flow from their long-standing intentionality in hardware and software design, but also because of the implicit promise of security, privacy, and stability that comes from the lack of hodge-podgeness that's somewhat inherent to the Android and Windows ecosystems. Take away that brand promise, and it's a downward spiral. But bigger companies have made worse choices before.
[0] https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/ https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/
- JKCalhoun 1y agoI guess I am not afraid of that so long as Apple still makes the bulk of their profits on hardware. To be sure though, they have been trying to move more strongly into "services" — as every company seems to be (MSFT, for example).
- yupyupyups 1y ago>privacy-first design I've heard this in Apple's PR campaigns a lot. How is forcing users to upload the private files to iCloud through UX dark patterns a "privacy-first design"? Me as a tech-knowledgable person fell for it while actively trying to not enable iCloud. Apple devices, never again.
- Spooky23 1y agoI think it’s likely because nobody understands or believes it. Techie people on HN adopt a “no true Scotsman” attitude, and assert that anything is not enough. People who know nothing don’t understand enough to understand the nuances, see the obvious abuses of privacy on the web, Facebook, etc and assume it’s bullshit.
- msgodel 1y agoApple's computing model is, in fact, fundamentally incompatible with privacy. They can say they value privacy all they want but as long as the user doesn't control the machine themselves it means almost nothing.
- secstate 1y agoHaving recently dug an old iPad out of the electronics bin at the transfer station this is acutely felt. I actually found an android tablet at the same time. I appreciate the desire to thwart theft, but lord! Wipe the android tablet, log in with Google, good to go. iPad can only be ground up and added to the asphalt to help slow down the aging of road surfaces. Again, I get the anti-theft angle, but this is so far beyond that. You are literally leasing the hardware from the manufacturer until such time as they decree you should be done with it. Never mind the thought exercise of what Apple could do if they wanted to if you were found to have CSAM and the state asked them to remove your access. No thank you.
- Yeul 1y agoAbuses of privacy? Hardly it is all completely legal. That is the genius of it the tech industry writes the laws. How much money did Apple donate to Trump?
- Spooky23 1y agoThank you for illustrating the point so quickly.
- bigyabai 1y agoNobody understands or believes Apple's stance either. All they'll do is give us whitepapers on how things should work, which we know has been fabricated at least once in the case of Push Notification backdoors: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/apple-admits-to-secretly-giving-governments-push-notification-data/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/apple-admits-to-... This isn't a no-true-scotsman attitude. This is a rational reaction to security theater when nobody can prove that Apple is doing what they claim to be doing.
- m463 1y agoThey don't really care about privacy. Take a look at the 1000 page privacy notice when you first set up a device. There are no settings available. All of it is actually a justification for collecting data. if they cared, they would "allow" you to firewall your phone.
- thefz 1y ago> their commitment to privacy-first design. Their only commitment is "apple-first to put their hands on user data, everyone else second"