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My problem with this is that it is pure marketing play. Apple isn't doing anything really great to enhance user privacy in absolutes - all they are doing is hav

My problem with this is that it is pure marketing play. Apple isn't doing anything really great to enhance user privacy in absolutes - all they are doing is having all your data and not letting anyone else benefit from it - right now. Which is to say Apple still does benefit from your data in direct or indirect ways. They are still, by default recording all your search queries on OS X. And Apple supporters' justification for that is well, Apple isn't a company whose revenue and profits are mostly dependent on ads. But if you look at facts, Apple wants to get a big pie of everything, not just hardware. And they go out of their way to try and get it - book sales (ref: antitrust case), iAd, Maps, Streaming Music - the list goes on and on. Given this, how do you claim Apple won't use your recorded search queries or music you listened to (Genius Recommendations) or location data or whatever else they record and we don't yet know about - to increase their profits? They sure as hell will - that's why they are collecting the data in first place. Google is doing the same thing by showing you ads that may be of interest to you, analyzing your Google Voicemails to increase their speech recognition accuracy, making their maps data more robust by giving you the best Navigation app for free, giving you useful reminders by looking at your email - they are doing it now and in return they are providing you with great products you can optionally use. To claim that Google is doing something evil while Apple is not purely because they make money on hardware is naive and too simplistic. (Case in point - Microsoft made most of their money selling you boxed software - now a days they want you to use their services and will provide you with a free upgrade to Windows and free online Office suite down the line. They did not care about your data before, but now they do!) Fact is you can either place reasonable trust on Google or Apple and continue to be part of the modern world or just drop all your devices, bank accounts, cards, get a car from 1970s and move off the grid. As much as it sounds harsh there isn't really such a thing as 100% privacy. Your data will always be vulnerable to becoming public in various degrees and to various effects.

k-mcgrady 11y ago
>> "Apple isn't doing anything really great to enhance user privacy in absolutes - all they are doing is having all your data and not letting anyone else benefit from it - right now." 1. iMessage and FaceTime data is encrypted. 2. Having my data and not letting anyone else benefit from it is 100x better than what most tech companies are doing. Also they don't have 'all' my data. They take what they need to improve my experience. Other companies hoover up everything they can because they need it to sell. >> "They are still, by default recording all your search queries on OS X." To improve the spotlight user experience. They're not selling my data and I can easily disable it. >> "They sure as hell will - that's why they are collecting the data in first place." No. The data the collect is to improve the user experience. They have no need to sell it - they're the biggest company on the planet. >> "As much as it sounds harsh there isn't really such a thing as 100% privacy." There never has been but there is a big difference between what Apple offers privacy wise and what Google or Facebook offer.
- blinkingled 11y ago
  > 1. iMessage and FaceTime data is encrypted. That doesn't really mean anything though. Apple still can decrypt your iMessage data. Besides you don't actually know - you are trusting Apple when they say they can't decrypt your messages. Given law enforcement situation that is most certainly false. >2. Having my data and not letting anyone else benefit from it is 100x better than what most tech companies are doing. Also they don't have 'all' my data. They take what they need to improve my experience. Other companies hoover up everything they can because they need it to sell. But Google isn't selling your data to anyone else either - the only parties benefiting from it are Google and you. Where is the proof that Google is selling your data to 3rd parties? Likewise you can give Google the data you feel like giving - no one is forcing anything on you. >> "They are still, by default recording all your search queries on OS X." >To improve the spotlight user experience. They're not selling my data and I can easily disable it. This is getting tiring - how is this any different from what Google does? You seem to implying that because Apple makes money from hardware today they won't sell my data tomorrow. I gave specific examples on how that is not true and how that could not be true tomorrow. Problem is you are starting with a blind faith in Apple - once you do that everything starts to sound logical even without any facts to support! If you drop blind faith in either Apple or Google you'll see that it is all the same - Google isn't selling your data to 3rd parties as much as you would love to believe. They are just benefiting from it. And that _could_ change tomorrow. Same with Apple.
  - k-mcgrady 11y ago
    >> "You seem to implying that because Apple makes money from hardware today they won't sell my data tomorrow." I'm not implying that. If they did decide to that tomorrow (which would be an incredibly stupid business decision) they would have much less data on me to sell than Google does one of their users simply because they aren't collecting EVERYTHING, only what they need now.
    - stanleydrew 11y ago
      I think you should take a step back and realize that you're not arguing anything from a position of actual evidence. This has boiled down to a "Google collects more data than Apple" argument, which quite frankly is simply unknowable and makes for boring reading. The fact is, both companies collect data, both companies sell ads, and nothing one CEO or the other says in a speech changes that.

k-mcgrady 11y ago

>> "Apple isn't doing anything really great to enhance user privacy in absolutes - all they are doing is having all your data and not letting anyone else benefit from it - right now." 1. iMessage and FaceTime data is encrypted. 2. Having my data and not letting anyone else benefit from it is 100x better than what most tech companies are doing. Also they don't have 'all' my data. They take what they need to improve my experience. Other companies hoover up everything they can because they need it to sell. >> "They are still, by default recording all your search queries on OS X." To improve the spotlight user experience. They're not selling my data and I can easily disable it. >> "They sure as hell will - that's why they are collecting the data in first place." No. The data the collect is to improve the user experience. They have no need to sell it - they're the biggest company on the planet. >> "As much as it sounds harsh there isn't really such a thing as 100% privacy." There never has been but there is a big difference between what Apple offers privacy wise and what Google or Facebook offer.

blinkingled 11y ago
> 1. iMessage and FaceTime data is encrypted. That doesn't really mean anything though. Apple still can decrypt your iMessage data. Besides you don't actually know - you are trusting Apple when they say they can't decrypt your messages. Given law enforcement situation that is most certainly false. >2. Having my data and not letting anyone else benefit from it is 100x better than what most tech companies are doing. Also they don't have 'all' my data. They take what they need to improve my experience. Other companies hoover up everything they can because they need it to sell. But Google isn't selling your data to anyone else either - the only parties benefiting from it are Google and you. Where is the proof that Google is selling your data to 3rd parties? Likewise you can give Google the data you feel like giving - no one is forcing anything on you. >> "They are still, by default recording all your search queries on OS X." >To improve the spotlight user experience. They're not selling my data and I can easily disable it. This is getting tiring - how is this any different from what Google does? You seem to implying that because Apple makes money from hardware today they won't sell my data tomorrow. I gave specific examples on how that is not true and how that could not be true tomorrow. Problem is you are starting with a blind faith in Apple - once you do that everything starts to sound logical even without any facts to support! If you drop blind faith in either Apple or Google you'll see that it is all the same - Google isn't selling your data to 3rd parties as much as you would love to believe. They are just benefiting from it. And that _could_ change tomorrow. Same with Apple.
- k-mcgrady 11y ago
  >> "You seem to implying that because Apple makes money from hardware today they won't sell my data tomorrow." I'm not implying that. If they did decide to that tomorrow (which would be an incredibly stupid business decision) they would have much less data on me to sell than Google does one of their users simply because they aren't collecting EVERYTHING, only what they need now.
  - stanleydrew 11y ago
    I think you should take a step back and realize that you're not arguing anything from a position of actual evidence. This has boiled down to a "Google collects more data than Apple" argument, which quite frankly is simply unknowable and makes for boring reading. The fact is, both companies collect data, both companies sell ads, and nothing one CEO or the other says in a speech changes that.