Over the last few months Apple has made a big deal about privacy and their products. Whether it’s taking out a billboard at CES, making YouTube videos, or mentioning it incessantly at their keynotes, you’d think that Apple was the privacy king. But companies like Google and Facebook have recently called them out on it. In the case of Google, they via their CEO Sundar Pichai say that Apple is selling privacy as a “luxury good”. In the case of Facebook, their head of global affairs, Nick Clegg said what Apple offers is “an exclusive club, available only to aspirant consumers with the means to buy high-value hardware and services.”
Now neither Facebook or Google is a paragon of virtue when it comes to protecting your data as both use your data to monetize it any way they can. But they do have a point. When you’re a company that sells phones that start at just over $1000 to $2000 CDN, and it is possible to spend over $8000 for a notebook from the same company, that company becomes a very easy target for shots like this. Except that in this case both Facebook and Google have a point because while Facebook is free and Android phones span the range between the ultra cheap handsets to the iPhone priced handsets that companies like Samsung offer, the only people who are going to be buying an iDevice are those with money. Which means that the only people who will benefit from Apple’s stance on privacy are those with money.
But it doesn’t stop there. As I mentioned earlier, both Google and Facebook are known to monetize your data in any way they can. And Apple has been critical of that. So if Apple doesn’t like what they are doing, and they really care about your privacy, why not ban Google and Facebook off their platform? That would really show the world that they are deadly serious about privacy. You’ll not that neither has been banned from Apple’s platforms. In the case of Google, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s because Apple is getting paid. Big time. And that trumps any focus on privacy. After all, Apple could use the privacy focused DuckDuckGo as their default search engine. But they don’t. And while Apple has taken some steps to try and moderate the behavior of Facebook, like this example, they’ve stopped short of banning them. And you have to wonder why that is. Perhaps they’re getting some cash from Facebook too? Who knows? Then there’s the fact that The Washington Post found that iOS apps leak data about you in huge amounts to third parties and Apple seemingly has done nothing to stop it. Is Apple simply asleep at the switch? You have to wonder as you’d think that a company who makes this much noise about privacy would do something about that.
The thing is that Apple has been known to take very absolute stands on privacy. Just look at what happened when they stood up to law enforcement when they refused to unlock the San Bernardino shooters iPhone. Apple dug their heels in and said it wasn’t going to happen. But you don’t see that same intestinal fortitude when it comes to the examples of Google and Facebook or data leakage. That to me makes Apple’s privacy stance very hollow.
Now let me be clear, Apple is free to price its gear any way it wants to. After all they are in business to make money for their shareholders. But their pricing strategy leaves it wide open to the criticism that we’ve seen leveled at them. And if you combine that with the fact that known privacy violators like Google and Facebook are still available on their platform, and they let large amounts of data about you leak out to third parties. You have to wonder if Apple is actually serious about privacy, or if it is just talk. The cynic in me says that it’s a bit more nuanced than that. I say that they’re serious about privacy if you can afford their gear, and if it doesn’t impact their revenue stream, and it is in their interest to be serious about privacy. That in my mind makes them a massive hypocrite on this topic. And perhaps rather than lecture others in terms of privacy, they should get their own house in order first.
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This entry was posted on June 25, 2019 at 8:06 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Apple Is A Hypocrite When It Comes To Privacy
Over the last few months Apple has made a big deal about privacy and their products. Whether it’s taking out a billboard at CES, making YouTube videos, or mentioning it incessantly at their keynotes, you’d think that Apple was the privacy king. But companies like Google and Facebook have recently called them out on it. In the case of Google, they via their CEO Sundar Pichai say that Apple is selling privacy as a “luxury good”. In the case of Facebook, their head of global affairs, Nick Clegg said what Apple offers is “an exclusive club, available only to aspirant consumers with the means to buy high-value hardware and services.”
Now neither Facebook or Google is a paragon of virtue when it comes to protecting your data as both use your data to monetize it any way they can. But they do have a point. When you’re a company that sells phones that start at just over $1000 to $2000 CDN, and it is possible to spend over $8000 for a notebook from the same company, that company becomes a very easy target for shots like this. Except that in this case both Facebook and Google have a point because while Facebook is free and Android phones span the range between the ultra cheap handsets to the iPhone priced handsets that companies like Samsung offer, the only people who are going to be buying an iDevice are those with money. Which means that the only people who will benefit from Apple’s stance on privacy are those with money.
But it doesn’t stop there. As I mentioned earlier, both Google and Facebook are known to monetize your data in any way they can. And Apple has been critical of that. So if Apple doesn’t like what they are doing, and they really care about your privacy, why not ban Google and Facebook off their platform? That would really show the world that they are deadly serious about privacy. You’ll not that neither has been banned from Apple’s platforms. In the case of Google, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s because Apple is getting paid. Big time. And that trumps any focus on privacy. After all, Apple could use the privacy focused DuckDuckGo as their default search engine. But they don’t. And while Apple has taken some steps to try and moderate the behavior of Facebook, like this example, they’ve stopped short of banning them. And you have to wonder why that is. Perhaps they’re getting some cash from Facebook too? Who knows? Then there’s the fact that The Washington Post found that iOS apps leak data about you in huge amounts to third parties and Apple seemingly has done nothing to stop it. Is Apple simply asleep at the switch? You have to wonder as you’d think that a company who makes this much noise about privacy would do something about that.
The thing is that Apple has been known to take very absolute stands on privacy. Just look at what happened when they stood up to law enforcement when they refused to unlock the San Bernardino shooters iPhone. Apple dug their heels in and said it wasn’t going to happen. But you don’t see that same intestinal fortitude when it comes to the examples of Google and Facebook or data leakage. That to me makes Apple’s privacy stance very hollow.
Now let me be clear, Apple is free to price its gear any way it wants to. After all they are in business to make money for their shareholders. But their pricing strategy leaves it wide open to the criticism that we’ve seen leveled at them. And if you combine that with the fact that known privacy violators like Google and Facebook are still available on their platform, and they let large amounts of data about you leak out to third parties. You have to wonder if Apple is actually serious about privacy, or if it is just talk. The cynic in me says that it’s a bit more nuanced than that. I say that they’re serious about privacy if you can afford their gear, and if it doesn’t impact their revenue stream, and it is in their interest to be serious about privacy. That in my mind makes them a massive hypocrite on this topic. And perhaps rather than lecture others in terms of privacy, they should get their own house in order first.
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This entry was posted on June 25, 2019 at 8:06 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.