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Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

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Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#41

Post by pbhjpbhj »

orbifold wrote: post #23

It's sad how the introduction of a new class of devices "smartphones" brought along with it a surveillance software platform in the form of Android. Where it is clear that the only incentive for google to develop it is exfiltration of as much personal data as they can. In contrast in the case of Apple you have a customer relationship with the company that sold you the device and they have an incentive to keep you as…

It may be the incentive, it may have been the incentive. But it's not the only possible incentive.

Before they were public Google did a lot of stuff that was seemingly just "because we can". Give geeks a metric-shit-ton of money and that'sb what you get.

This line sounds like the "businesses aren't allowed to do things that don't maximise profits" myth.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#43

Post by huffmsa »

nemo846 wrote: post #21
thefounder wrote: post #14

Well Apple can start by making Siri work locally/without internet and then I believe their stance.

If they could I believe they would. They rather not be reliant on whoever is providing their speak recognition.

They don't have the dataset needed to train the speech recognition engine, nor do they seem to be willing to deploy some of that $250b in cash to hire engineers smart enough to make a model which only needs the local user's input for training.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#44

Post by EZ-E »

thefounder wrote: post #14

Well Apple can start by making Siri work locally/without internet and then I believe their stance.

I believe the "hey Siri" wake up works locally. For the rest that seems complicated as many of the questions you ask Siri requires Siri to fetch something online to find the response

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#45

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

That's very good. The more high-profile people speak up against what's happening, the more the general public realizes what's really going on. Frankly, most non-technical users have no idea how they're profiled and what the real and potential dangers are.

You know what's funny? We reached a point where 100% private conversation between two endpoints is finally possible, without the dependence on any third party (be it the Post Office, GSM operators,, Google, Apple, or anyone else). That's a huge step for communication privacy. And yet, most people choose the other way, they prefer to share their most intimate details with Facebook via Messenger and WhatsApp, with Google via Gmail, with Microsoft via Skype... Mostly because they're unaware of how things work and that other, more secure ways are available. So kudos to Cook for helping that cause just a bit.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#46

Post by mtgx »

walterbell wrote: post #38

Hi Apple. Please: • add VPN on/off to control center • allow per-app VPN via Apple Configurator, without enterprise MDM • once the above two are available, we can use Tor, IDS, DPI or pihole on a per-application basis, to reduce data harvesting • bonus1: allow the open-source iOS MDM community OR the iOS Shortcuts community to make it easy for novice users to have one-click install of "privacy-plus configurations" •…

It would help if they decoupled the so-called "end-to-end encrypted" iMessage from automatic backups to centralized iCloud servers to which all governments have access.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#47

Post by thecatspaw »

chongli wrote: post #28
simonh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's stance has been completely consistent. They comply with the law while making their ethical beliefs and stance as a company clear where they disagree with it. What do you suggest Apple should do instead of comply with the law? Require it's employees to incriminate themselves?

What do you suggest Apple should do instead of comply with the law? Require it's employees to incriminate themselves? I'm not the GP but I've seen this exact form of complaint many times. I think the usual response is "stop doing business in China." I don't know how that's supposed to work, though, since Chinese companies make all of Apple's hardware.

I guess it would extend into "dont buy chinese hardware"

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#48

Post by huffmsa »

huffmsa wrote: post #13

Apple blew it's lead with Siri and is now trying to hamstring it's competition from passing it by with features that aren't animated emotions or only allowing certified Apple parts in repairs.

Thirdly, Mr Cook should put some of that $250b cash mountain he sits on to work making this stuff happen.

Prove that localized models built on small datasets work.

Invest in cryptography and user anonymity technologies.

Instead he's just sitting on it like smaug.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#49

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #39
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #9

Until Apple growth streak breaks and they start to use data like everyone else and using data is a good thing.

That would mean they pivot from a hardware company to an advertising company; I don't see that happening myself.

I thought they were a design/branding company -- what proportion of hardware do they make themselves. Again I thought they outsourced [most of] that?

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#50

Post by pluma »

chongli wrote: post #28
simonh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's stance has been completely consistent. They comply with the law while making their ethical beliefs and stance as a company clear where they disagree with it. What do you suggest Apple should do instead of comply with the law? Require it's employees to incriminate themselves?

What do you suggest Apple should do instead of comply with the law? Require it's employees to incriminate themselves? I'm not the GP but I've seen this exact form of complaint many times. I think the usual response is "stop doing business in China." I don't know how that's supposed to work, though, since Chinese companies make all of Apple's hardware.

How does sourcing in China require you to sell to the Chinese market? I don't see how Apple could be compelled to open their iCloud to the Chinese government if they're not operating iCloud in China and don't directly have Chinese customers.
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