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Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

businessinsider.com

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Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#91

Post by forapurpose »

> "At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right."

I agree and think Apple promoting and implementing it in their products is wonderful. But most of the world can't afford Apple products and therefore are effectively denied this human right.

It would be great if Apple could provide a low-cost line, probably under a different brand name, that implemented the privacy technologies in otherwise basic phones, laptops, etc. Or maybe license the privacy tech to someone else who does that. (I realize it might be much more complicated than what I describe; for example, the security tech could be too tightly integrated with the rest of the product. Would they have to license iOS? A stripped down version?)

I'm not complaining; it's not Apple's job to solve this problem created by other phone and OS makers. But they could make a big impact and I don't think it would take sales from Apple products; an otherwise cheap phone with Apple's boot security subsystem isn't going to compete with an iPhone.

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#93

Post by jaweb »

IBM wrote: post #70
IBM wrote: post #19

I hope Apple follows up on this by actually lobbying for a GDPR bill to be passed in the US.

It's funny that this comment has 10 upvotes but fell to the bottom of the page. No doubt there's a lot of vested interests against privacy legislation. To the Facebook and Google employees: it's already in the EU, and it's likely coming to the US in some form. If not at the federal level, certainly at the state level.

GDPR is a rare area where I see as many positive and negative opinions on it in communities such as HN. Will be interesting to see how this develops with further fallout from the Facebook story, and with GDPR actually coming up to the deadline for implementation in May

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#94

Post by replicatorblog »

Apple's business model is unlike Facebook's business model in that it does not make money from ad targeting.

Facebook's business model is unlike Apple's business model in that it does not make money from sending 12-year-olds into cobalt mines.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/11/industry-gian...

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#95

Post by walterbell »

yardie wrote: post #75
jodrellblank wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the CLOUD Act (S. 2383 and H.R. 4943), a measure pushed by Apple and other tech industry giants but strongly opposed by privacy advocates. - https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/23/apple-supported-c...

They didn’t push it. They were just glad something was finally in writing. The alternative was letting the courts and companies battle it out. And all it takes is one bad precedent to fuck everyone. Laws are malleable, they can be massaged through the courts and have to be to be renewed. Precedents are much harder to fix and can only be overturned in a higher court. No one is happy about this, but they are relieved.

Any examples of the types of cases/precedents they were trying to avoid?

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#96

Post by my123 »

walterbell wrote: post #95
yardie wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn’t push it. They were just glad something was finally in writing. The alternative was letting the courts and companies battle it out. And all it takes is one bad precedent to fuck everyone. Laws are malleable, they can be massaged through the courts and have to be to be renewed. Precedents are much harder to fix and can only be overturned in a higher court. No one is happy about this, but they are relieved.

Any examples of the types of cases/precedents they were trying to avoid?

Microsoft v United States of America about access to data in Ireland for US authorities

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#97

Post by [deleted] »

woweeeee wrote: post #80
kerng wrote: post #49

It makes a difference having a CEO that is so vocal about this, it changes what everyone in the org does and sees as "right". It's a good thing. At Facebook the understanding seems to be more Orwellian community like, spearheaded by Mark Zuckerberg. They envision and build a future where everyone is under surveillance at all times - so collecting a bit more doesn't matter, more to the contrary. Last week there was a…

operating devices owned by an employer is strike one. It’s not your personal property. You didn’t buy it from the store, you give it back when you quit or get fired, right?

[deleted]

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#98

Post by 908087 »

kendallpark wrote: post #77

I think there have been some valid points made in this thread about business models. Facebook is the least diversified company out of the big five when it comes to how much of their business model depends on collecting user data (and how personal that data is). At the same time, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft weren't just handed their business models. Each company decided to what (and what not) to pur…

> At the end of the day we all checked off Facebook's EULA and Privacy Policy box and uploaded thousands of artifacts from our lives

That might be true for you, but there are hundreds of millions of people who have been captured in Facebook's surveillance web, despite never interacting directly with Facebook themselves.

> TBH what disturbs me the most is how much data Facebook has on people's children. There's going to be an entire generation of people whose conception to high school graduation has been archived in Facebook servers, without their consent.

This scares the hell out of me. Millions of children are having their ability to choose whether or not they wish to have their entire lives archived on the servers of an advertising and manipulation corporation taken from them at birth by irresponsible parents trying to build internet points for themselves.

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#99

Post by cdmoyer »

replicatorblog wrote: post #94

Apple's business model is unlike Facebook's business model in that it does not make money from ad targeting. Facebook's business model is unlike Apple's business model in that it does not make money from sending 12-year-olds into cobalt mines. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/11/industry-gian...

Huh, I expected much worse than “Earlier this year, Apple became the first company to publish the names of its cobalt suppliers, and Amnesty’s research shows it is currently the industry leader when it comes to responsible cobalt sourcing. Since 2016, Apple has actively engaged with Huayou Cobalt to identify and address child labour in its supply chain.”

Re: Tim Cook says Facebook's collection of user data 'shouldn't exist'

#100

Post by ModernMech »

htormey wrote: post #29
gaius wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple, Microsoft and Amazon will be perfectly unperturbed when the so-called “attention economy” goes away. They are real companies offering real goods and services.

I think it will hit them as well, just not to the same extent as Facebook & Google. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, which is an advertising company. I also seem to recall that they make a reasonable chunk of change from search advertising and other online properties. According to this link they took in a little over 6 billion in advertising revenue last year: https://www.statista.com/statistics/725388/microsoft-corpora... A…

Microsoft for example has several billion dollar businesses aside from Windows, Office, and enterprise. Their Surface and Xbox hardware, for example, pulls in that much revenue each. They'll be fine.
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