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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”

#161

Post by chongli »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #152
chongli wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are values not backed by a willingness to make sacrifices worth anything?

Sacrifices for what, though? Let's say Apple does take a stand against China's human rights record. Then what? Apple pulls out of the country and a Chinese company fills the void in the market, possibly handing over even more user data to the government. What has been accomplished by Apple's "sacrifice"?

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

#162

Post by [deleted] »

stult wrote: post #34
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…

I would kill for a Linux phone, but until that happens I would settle for a phone that comes with root access (or at least allows technically capable users to get it) and let's me control my own data and device from the bare metal up. Because even if Apple has less incentive to exfiltrate data, I don't want to have to trust any company to do the right thing or to keep doing it.

[deleted]

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

#163

Post by nneonneo »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #150
compcoffee wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He literally said that we as a society should be grateful for having Apple. Which is utterly cringeworthy. iPhone user thinks iPhone is best thing since sliced bread. News at 11.

I'm not usually one for fanboyism (and I say this as a full time Linux desktop and Android user) but Apple really do seem to be trying to do right by their customers in most cases. Certainly more than the competition. I've been considering switching for a while, but it seems the quality of their hardware and to some extent their software has slowly been going downhill post-Jobs.

iTunes wasn't fantastic while Jobs was around, either. The first versions of OS X downright sucked. The build quality and aesthetic of the iPhone X rival anything from the Jobs era in my view, and the recent improvements on mobile performance have been nothing short of amazing.

I feel like people get these rose-tinted glasses when they look back on past Apple products, like they were all 100% perfect or something. Truth is - they all had little issues, but they were still often miles ahead of their competition.

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

#164

Post by simias »

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…

As time passes I'm more and more wary of my Android phone (even though I have only a very limited usage compared to most "connected" people as far as I can tell). I just don't trust Google at all anymore. I think my next smartphone might well be the first Apple product I purchase in my life. Not that iPhones are without problems but as far as security and privacy are concerned they're pretty clearly the lesser evil these days.

It's not so much that I think that Apple is more virtuous than Google, that'd be naive. It's more that their business model seems to align better with actually respecting their user's privacy instead of siphoning as much data as they can even if that means using ridiculous defaults, nagging and dark UI patterns.

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

#165

Post by andygates »

EastSmith wrote: post #78

I have owned couple of google phones (Nexus and Pixel). Today for the first time ever I am considering buying an iPhone. I would pay premium for privacy on Google devices if they make it available. And we now know what the price is - $40 in EU. Just sell it like this Google.

I guess Tim's blatant sales pitch found a mark, eh?

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

#166

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

akuji1993 wrote: post #92
Y_Y wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhatsApp is (we are told) end-to-end encrypted using the same protocol as Signal.

As far as I understand this, correct me if this is wrong, this means the content of your messages is encrypted. There is still important data to fetch about who you talk to, how much and when.

Indeed. Besides, the app itself has access to the full content of your conversations so what happens in-between is pretty much irrelevant.

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

#167

Post by PhasmaFelis »

stult wrote: post #34
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…

I would kill for a Linux phone, but until that happens I would settle for a phone that comes with root access (or at least allows technically capable users to get it) and let's me control my own data and device from the bare metal up. Because even if Apple has less incentive to exfiltrate data, I don't want to have to trust any company to do the right thing or to keep doing it.

It's easy to get root on some Android devices. I think all Google phones purchased directly from Google make it a standard option; some others do as well, and still others have easy exploits.

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

#168

Post by sbuk »

akuji1993 wrote: post #102
sbuk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's this got to do with privacy?

If I want to purchase a device, I'm going to take more into consideration than just the privacy policy of the company.. One of the important factors is, what happens with my device, when it's broken?

It is either fully repaired/remanufactured and resold/used in a swap out, stripped for parts for repair/remanufacturing or totally recycled by Apple.

The "It's broke, here is a new one" IMHO is convenient for the consumer having their mobile device repaired. They're not having to wait around for hours/days while the repair is done. IME, Apple only really swap for total hardware failure or screen replacement on the X series iPhone.

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

#169

Post by andygates »

pluma wrote: post #53

I read this as "military industrial complex" and was positively surprised to see such a strong sociopolitical statement coming from Tim Cook, then I noticed the article talks about "data industrial complex" and realised this is still tame enough to count as aggressive marketing.

Obvious sales pitch is obvious.

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

#170

Post by zaidf »

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…

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 a customer without having a need to extract as much advertisement revenue as they can.

Do you acknowledge this comes at a huge cost? Apple has a fraction of the marketshare as Android in countries like India. Apple's iPhone prices out billions of people. Android-based phones don't. If Android-based phones adopted Apple's business model, billions of people would not have smartphones.

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