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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

#171

Post by tacosx »

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.

If I never hear the argument that "tech is just too hard and bandwidth too unaffordable, poor Zuckerberg/Bezos/Brin are so destitute they would just have to shut down the web and phones completely without behavioral advertising" it would great because it's a very very bad argument.

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

#172

Post by omnifischer »

gbear605 wrote: post #161
omnifischer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition, please note that Apple's motto is 'Privacy for the rich'. Please do a Privacy for all - iPhone. Sorry HN-users, there are another 5 billion people that cant afford your > $ 200 products. Mind you even in ebay/second hand in the poor markets iPhones are expensive. Edit: Why down votes? Please remember there are other too in the world that deserve technology + privacy.

You can get a decent used iPhone for under $200. I don’t fault Apple for not making an iPhone cheaper than that.

Try to use it as daily driver. Very difficult.

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

#173

Post by anoncake »

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…

But the cost of selling an app does not primarily depend on its cost. Size, frequency of updates etc. are a much bigger factor. Them taking a flat 30% is a clear sign Apple is a price-maker and the market doesn't work.

And taking 30% for in-app purchases — while forbidding developers from even advertising ways of purchasing that bypass Apple — is just plain anticompetitive.

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

#174

Post by cameronbrown »

gbear605 wrote: post #160
jclardy wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution I believe still lies in Apple's court. Say you have an app that is a niche app with a 7 day free trial and a one-time purchase. How does this look to the user? Exactly like every other freemium/ad riddled/subscription/pay-to-play app. The download button says "Get" and underneath it you see "In-App Purchases Available." User expectations are destroyed at the download page. One part of the solution is to…

The app store already works like this. They clearly mark subscription apps like this, including free trials.

But free trials are never really free: after 14 days when you've probably already forgotten about the app, your card gets charged. There needs to be a proper way to try stuff without slyly charging them.

Maybe ask them outright at the end of the trial if they want to carry on?

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

#175

Post by dijit »

ekianjo wrote: post #148
dijit wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All well and good to say such things, could you point me to a few? I was using Android as a daily driver for over 6 months and I didn't find anything in the play store that was of sufficient quality. (DAVDroid being the closest to decent, but it ran in the background and didn't do 2-way-sync correctly etc) FWIW I was using a Samsung Galaxy S8, and that model does not have the ability to be flashed (and I think it doe…

I use DAVDroid (now DAVx5) and I have had no issues with it so far, coupled with a NextCloud DAV server. So far it has worked well to sync contact information, calendars and the like (for close to 2 years now)

it would be stupid (and ignorant) of me to claim that it doesn't work for anybody.

I'm glad it works for you, it wasn't a very nice experience for me and it's certainly not comparable to having the OS designed and built for my use-case in mind, but I certainly don't think it's "unworkable" just that Apple provides a superior product in this example.

:)

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

#176

Post by cameronbrown »

scarface74 wrote: post #131
secfirstmd wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only person we thinks Apple might be setting itself up to take a shot at a private, secure, ad-free, paid for social media play? I mean there are a growing number of people leaving Facebook (ok mostly for Instagram and WhatsApp) who would be willing to pay a few dollars a month to have an advert free experience in a private social media network.

They have failed at every attempt at social media.

Because there was never a demand for a new social network. Apple is now big enough that anything they build becomes trendy and something people will jump into.

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

#177

Post by propertymagnate »

scarface74 wrote: post #129
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.

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

Thriving may be a bit strong - These are small potatoes compared to apple, sure, but these are tech obsessed people buying privacy orientated products.

Librem 5 raised over $2.1 million

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/10/purism-librem-5-crowdfun...

The VPN market is measured in the billions.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/542817/worldwide-virtual...

People spend money in this area. The privacy orientated crowd is willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Please keep orientating products towards it.

edit: sorry, for some reason I'm unable to reply to the comment below. Purism raised 2.1 million pre-selling their the librem 5, not in shares or anything.

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

#179

Post by scarface74 »

propertymagnate wrote: post #177
scarface74 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Thriving may be a bit strong - These are small potatoes compared to apple, sure, but these are tech obsessed people buying privacy orientated products. Librem 5 raised over $2.1 million https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/10/purism-librem-5-crowdfun... The VPN market is measured in the billions. https://www.statista.com/statistics/542817/worldwide-virtual... People spend money in this area. The privacy orientated crowd…

Needing to raise money kind of means they aren’t profitable.

As far as the “VPN market” according to the link, they are mostly referring to businesses using VPNs in the enterprise not individual users.

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

#180

Post by paxys »

kfrzcode wrote: post #178

Is there an existing alternative service (read: FOSS) that would auto-generate temporary emails and manage identity for services like "Login with Apple"?

There are lots of temporary email services, most or all of which are blocked by major sites.
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