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Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

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Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#91

Post by orangecat »

larrywright wrote: post #16
staunch wrote: post #7

> If you buy something from the App Store, we do know what you bought from the App Store, obviously. We think customers are fine with that. Users should also be able to install apps on their iPhones without Apple knowing what they're doing. Personal computing devices shouldn't have artificial walled gardens. But I agree with him on everything else and think he's a hero for what he's doing.

I think that what Apple has done here is an acceptable tradeoff. The app store trades a small amount of privacy for a lot more security. Looking at Android's perpetual issues with this makes me think that Apple made the right choice.

Which means they're making the wrong choice allowing Macs to run unapproved software, right?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#92

Post by IBM »

djhn wrote: post #12

"Here is what we do on our platform. Here is what an unnamed search engine company does, or might in theory do, on their platform. You will probably agree: what we do is better in multiple, obvious ways. To be even less subtle, I am indeed trying to cast our competitor in very bad light." If they're willing to walk the walk, I don't even mind how transparent this "privacy as a competitive advantage" strategy is.

They have been for years and people wondered why they didn't talk about it because of how it differentiates them from the competition. Now they're talking about it and a common comment here is "they're only doing it because Google makes their money from advertising", well yes that's the point. Kind of funny but predictable.

Having a business incentive that's aligned with privacy is the absolute best thing you could ask for if you want privacy. First because it will ensure they remain committed to it, and also because it shows up the competition and forces them to move in that direction as well.

http://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/

This shows pretty clearly that they "walk the walk".

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#93

Post by kijin »

djhn wrote: post #12

"Here is what we do on our platform. Here is what an unnamed search engine company does, or might in theory do, on their platform. You will probably agree: what we do is better in multiple, obvious ways. To be even less subtle, I am indeed trying to cast our competitor in very bad light." If they're willing to walk the walk, I don't even mind how transparent this "privacy as a competitive advantage" strategy is.

In fact, it would be stupid of them NOT to capitalize this golden opportunity.

The unnamed search engine company simply cannot afford to offer the same level of privacy as Apple is capable of offering. Meanwhile, the only other supermassive company whose business model might have allowed them to focus on privacy has just thrown in the towel and decided to become as privacy-invasive as everyone else, starting with the recent free upgrade to their flagship operating system.

Being a hardware company that also happens to sell some cloud-based tools, rather than the other way around, sure has its perks.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#94

Post by martingordon »

kbenson wrote: post #64
martingordon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying that the flashing/side-loading is the back door. A malicious actor with physical access to your phone (think screen repair shop, TSA agent, etc) could flash a compromised OS or install malware on your device. Also, there a lot of not-savvy people who will follow instructions in a well-crafted email or pop up and allow themselves to succumb to spyware and malware.

Well, it's a good thing we have Apple's track-record to show us it's impossible to break out of these walled gardens, otherwise we'd really be in trouble if someone got physical access to our phones. https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Jailbreak

Fair enough. I used to keep up with jailbreaks way back before I started buying unlocked phones and had read about difficult-to-crack OS versions (and the as-of-yet unjailbreakable 3rd generation Apple TV), but I wasn't aware that it was still this pervasive.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#95

Post by sigmar »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #89
drew-y wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple actually has a solid argument when they say "Our users are not our products". Very little of Apple's revenue comes from ads so they really have no need for the infrastructure. However, considering they are one of the largest companies in the world with hundreds of billions in the bank, I seriously doubt it would be very hard for them to setup that sort of infrastructure.

> Very little of Apple's revenue comes from ads so they really have no need for the infrastructure However, they wish to carefully control the advertising on iOS, if you want to uniquely identify a user for retargeting purposes, well, tracking cookies are evil, but iAd is good! https://developer.apple.com/iad/my-audiences/iad-my-audience...

Fond something near the end of that link:

>In the spring of 2015, iAd plans to provide developers with unique audience insights about the users in your segments, viewable in iAd Workbench—including their distribution by gender, age, geography, and iTunes Preferences. With audience insights, app developers can find new users with similar characteristics to their existing customers, and tailor messages for retargeting campaign

Did they abandoned this or not? Seems contrary to their current "we aren't using your data" mantra

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#97

Post by martingordon »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #57
martingordon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying that the flashing/side-loading is the back door. A malicious actor with physical access to your phone (think screen repair shop, TSA agent, etc) could flash a compromised OS or install malware on your device. Also, there a lot of not-savvy people who will follow instructions in a well-crafted email or pop up and allow themselves to succumb to spyware and malware.

I'm saying that the flashing/side-loading is the back door Next you'll be saying compilers are backdoors, too. That's not what the term "backdoor" means. A malicious actor with physical access to your phone Stop. Physical access means all bets are off.

I should have been more clear. I was using Tim Cook's statement as an analogy for flashing/side-loading. Allowing good guys to do it means bad guys can do it too.

Tricking a user into side-loading malware does not require physical access to the device and is relatively common on the Android side (more so on third-party stores).

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#98

Post by IBM »

gozo wrote: post #84
IBM wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XcodeGhost wouldn't have happened if developers weren't able to disable Gatekeeper and the iCloud hack was done with phishing for security question answers. http://gawker.com/feds-seized-chicago-mans-computers-in-cele...

The iCloud hack was enabled by the automatic backup feature that despite storing very sensitive information didn't provide adequate security for doing so. If there were actual precedent for Apple caring about their users privacy, there would be outrage over this rather than being trivially dismissed.

That's not relevant at all to the iCloud "hack". It's a cloud service, the whole point is to store data online.

Those accounts were breached because celebs were phished and not because of bruteforcing, as some people were speculating at the time, or some other vulnerability.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#99

Post by mattress »

sigmar wrote: post #95
EdwardDiego wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Very little of Apple's revenue comes from ads so they really have no need for the infrastructure However, they wish to carefully control the advertising on iOS, if you want to uniquely identify a user for retargeting purposes, well, tracking cookies are evil, but iAd is good! https://developer.apple.com/iad/my-audiences/iad-my-audience...

Fond something near the end of that link: >In the spring of 2015, iAd plans to provide developers with unique audience insights about the users in your segments, viewable in iAd Workbench—including their distribution by gender, age, geography, and iTunes Preferences. With audience insights, app developers can find new users with similar characteristics to their existing customers, and tailor messages for retargeting…

They are definitely using our data, but probably not in the same way. More of a we won't use your data unless it's to improve your experience with our device.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'

#100

Post by yarou »

pratikjhaveri wrote: post #67

A tad "holier than thou" attitude pointing a finger at your competitor and to a large extent the entire internet economy. It would be nice to dial down the spin/FUD machine esp when you're the CEO. Ad targeting will and has evolved. Good things happen when you understand the user and their needs - I for one am willing to trade my privacy for USEFUL features and products (to paint this as only ads is injustice). Just…

The irony of your comment is that most ad companies play the victim and moralize how blocking ads is akin to murder. Ad targeting has evolved alright, but not in a way that has helped consumers one bit.

It's become an arms race to the bottom, essentially. To coddle ad companies as if they are mom and pop shops that are struggling is not only naive, but dangerous.

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