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Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

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Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#121

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

ignoramous wrote: post #61
propertymagnate wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's true, there's quite a thriving privacy based market for the tech obsessed. take librem one and purism's products, the VPN market, the pinephone, proton mail, or lavabit as examples. https://puri.sm/ https://lavabit.com/ https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ https://protonmail.com/ But yes, these comments are likely just noise.

For every puri.sm I'd wager there is a SilentCircle. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12047219

How is this different than any other industry? Most start-ups fail, security industry or otherwise.

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#122

Post by vectorEQ »

nafizh wrote: post #22

Lots of negativity/skepticism here which is reasonable I would say given tech companies' abuse of our trust. I for one, am happy that Apple can afford to offer privacy as one of its strong suites. Whether they can do it because of their business model or not is moot IMO. Everyone is here to make money, I would rather have someone who doesn't have to sell every aspect of my life to do it.

they will in fact sell all aspects of your life. oh wait, you can PAY THEM so they don't. seems legit. gets them the money either way.

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#123

Post by riazrizvi »

Apple delivers privacy from 3rd party developers and at the same time retains all that user data for itself, shoring up its unfair competitive advantage as a non-neutral-platform who makes major forays into its partners’ businesses. Eg health apps, maps, news, podcasts, imusic, etc, etc.

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#124

Post by suspectdoubloon »

neuronic wrote: post #118
yholio wrote: post #25

It's a devil's bargain: now we have to choose between walled gardens that offer some privacy and extract their revenue from lock-in, and more open systems that live off spying our data. Truth be told, the software development cost of these systems (Android and iOS) is not that huge, a reasonably good open source alternative could probably be created for less than a billion dollars, knowing how financially efficient a…

Whoever would develop such an OS would sure need to get the app ecosystem going pretty fast. Because that's what has killed Windows Mobile phones.

Hmmm, I don't think is 100% necessary. Web assembly and PWAs have caught up in the last few years. I reckon things like firefox os would have a better chance now.

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#125

Post by [deleted] »

WA wrote: post #109
Ntrails wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As long as users will balk at paying even 4.99 for an app Out of interest, what is the refund policy in the app store? I know, for example, I'm way more chilled about paying for "unknown" steam games when I can refund them after an hour of play if I don't like them.

You can refund purchases for up to 14 days. I consider this a somewhat well-kept secret, because nobody seems to make use of this.

[deleted]

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#126

Post by JeffL »

Terretta wrote: post #116
banachtarski wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all over the place I can't even begin, or do you not see the plethora of ads plaguing apps available in the app store and mobile web. If you think tracking isn't involved, you're sorely mistaken. Apple set the 30% tax for premium goods, and effectively killed the premium market as a result. Google followed suit largely because it aligns with Google's core business. Apple's angle is? Honestly, I have no clue. I'm…

> 30% ... Apple’s angle? ... inclined to think it’s incompetency This 30% number is accurate but hardly all tax. First, companies attempting to compete with Steam have found it costs 12% to 18% to just run a digital store, without all the app review, customer discovery & acquisition, hosting and delivery, and ecosystem integration Apple and Steam are doing, much less human support. Second, just a credit card transact…

That's a very good rebuttal, but it doesn't address the point that the premium apps are forced to shoulder more than their share of the load for operating the app store, right? Would there be some way for Apple to charge apps for tracking or running in-app adds?

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#127

Post by scarface74 »

banachtarski wrote: post #86
nafizh wrote: post #22

Lots of negativity/skepticism here which is reasonable I would say given tech companies' abuse of our trust. I for one, am happy that Apple can afford to offer privacy as one of its strong suites. Whether they can do it because of their business model or not is moot IMO. Everyone is here to make money, I would rather have someone who doesn't have to sell every aspect of my life to do it.

You know when I'll believe it? When the un-screw up their app store which vastly incentivizes the development of free-to-use ad-driven apps that prey on user tracking data over premium alternatives. Ad-based revenue has a higher value proposition to developers because it dodges the inane anachronistic 30% tax. "Privacy" first is an utter illusion when the majority of apps approved in this closed ecosystem that ostens…

Developers aren’t doing ad supported apps because of the 30% “tax”. Did software sell with ads when they had to pay physical retail stores 60% for distribution?

They do ads because people are too cheap to buy apps.

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#128

Post by ClassyJacket »

threeseed wrote: post #113
dmitriid wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t force you, but if you don’t, you can’t even tell people how to subscribe. See Spotify, Kindle.

You can tell people how to subscribe outside the app. But you just can't use Apple's own platform against them.

You can't link, at least, to an external website to buy

https://www.pcworld.com/article/229880/Apple_Backs_Off_In_Ap...

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#129

Post by scarface74 »

propertymagnate wrote: post #37
rapsey wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to sell something to privacy obsessed tech segment is a futile effort. They are never happy and don’t want to pay for anything anyway. But that is not their target market anyway. It is the general public and these comments are just noise.

I don't think that's true, there's quite a thriving privacy based market for the tech obsessed. take librem one and purism's products, the VPN market, the pinephone, proton mail, or lavabit as examples. https://puri.sm/ https://lavabit.com/ https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ https://protonmail.com/ But yes, these comments are likely just noise.

Are they profitable? Because they exist don’t mean they are “thriving”.

Re: Apple is now a privacy-as-a-service company

#130

Post by nabla9 »

thefounder wrote: post #34

Still they were/are part of PRISM so keep in mind that the privacy offered depends by various U.S agencies.

Privacy is not all or nothing issue. If you have privacy against commercial use but not against various U.S. agencies that's better than nothing.

Any service where you can reset your password/token that is known only to you after you lose it is not safe from government warrant. It can still be safe from mass collection like PRISM.

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