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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

#11

Post by josteink »

dijit wrote: post #10
blatchcorn wrote: post #2

Apple is a 'use all of our products, or else we will make life inconvenient for you' company. The fact that this happens to offer some privacy benefits is just a strategy credit[1] [1] https://stratechery.com/2013/strategy-credit/

Not sure how true this is. I run my own infra (caldav,carddav,imap/smtp) and all of it intergrates seamlessly into iOS and macOS. I tried the same on android and it did not work seamlessly with anything except google services. Sure, their own stuff works better with their own stuff, and yes, the watches can't be configured without a phone, but that's also true of android.

Could you outline what kind of problems you had with android and integration? In my experience android is the superior platform for plugging in your own modules and your own data where you want it.

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

#12

Post by robjan »

SXX wrote: post #6
blatchcorn wrote: post #2

Apple is a 'use all of our products, or else we will make life inconvenient for you' company. The fact that this happens to offer some privacy benefits is just a strategy credit[1] [1] https://stratechery.com/2013/strategy-credit/

I'm not in any way an Apple fan and only look at their ecosystem via VM, but I curious. What company have more convenient integration of both own proprietary services and 3rd-party one? As I see it with Apple you can be at least fairly sure their products going to have good integration within their closed-garden ecosystem. With anyone else not even this is guaranteed and you'll likely be bombarded by ads. I'm among t…

I can use Google Drive on pretty much anything. Now try using iCloud Drive on an Android...

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

#13

Post by wereHamster »

xvector wrote: post #9
wereHamster wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These days privacy is a luxury, rather than a fundamental right. The EU things differently. For us privacy is very much a fundamental right, such as right for access to clean water/air, right for free access to information (internet) etc.

And yet Google and Facebook still regularly invade privacy and build shadow profiles of users.

We have laws against murder and yet people commit it all the time. What kind of argument are you trying to make?

Both Google and Facebook have been hit with lawsuits in the EU. The laws are there and companies violating them are being punished. One could argue that the punishment is not large enough, if companies still repeatedly violate the laws. It'll take some time though until we see whether companies change their stance on privacy. One company which doesn't need any 'encouragement' is Apple, that's pretty clear now.

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

#14

Post by bflesch »

dijit wrote: post #10
blatchcorn wrote: post #2

Apple is a 'use all of our products, or else we will make life inconvenient for you' company. The fact that this happens to offer some privacy benefits is just a strategy credit[1] [1] https://stratechery.com/2013/strategy-credit/

Not sure how true this is. I run my own infra (caldav,carddav,imap/smtp) and all of it intergrates seamlessly into iOS and macOS. I tried the same on android and it did not work seamlessly with anything except google services. Sure, their own stuff works better with their own stuff, and yes, the watches can't be configured without a phone, but that's also true of android.

What software are you using for caldav?

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

#15

Post by SXX »

dijit wrote: post #10
blatchcorn wrote: post #2

Apple is a 'use all of our products, or else we will make life inconvenient for you' company. The fact that this happens to offer some privacy benefits is just a strategy credit[1] [1] https://stratechery.com/2013/strategy-credit/

Not sure how true this is. I run my own infra (caldav,carddav,imap/smtp) and all of it intergrates seamlessly into iOS and macOS. I tried the same on android and it did not work seamlessly with anything except google services. Sure, their own stuff works better with their own stuff, and yes, the watches can't be configured without a phone, but that's also true of android.

> Sure, their own stuff works better with their own stuff, and yes, the watches can't be configured without a phone, but that's also true of android.

Android have quite good open source project for this:

https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge

Obviously its not what Google intended, but Android is just better when it comes to support of open source alternatives. Yet obviously as I posted already in this topic it's hard to build convenient infrastructure for yourself in general.

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

#17

Post by killjoywashere »

robjan wrote: post #12
SXX wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in any way an Apple fan and only look at their ecosystem via VM, but I curious. What company have more convenient integration of both own proprietary services and 3rd-party one? As I see it with Apple you can be at least fairly sure their products going to have good integration within their closed-garden ecosystem. With anyone else not even this is guaranteed and you'll likely be bombarded by ads. I'm among t…

I can use Google Drive on pretty much anything. Now try using iCloud Drive on an Android...

Seriously... Even Microsoft came around to putting Office on Android. Apple? Nowhere to be seen.

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

#18

Post by afiori »

xvector wrote: post #9
wereHamster wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These days privacy is a luxury, rather than a fundamental right. The EU things differently. For us privacy is very much a fundamental right, such as right for access to clean water/air, right for free access to information (internet) etc.

And yet Google and Facebook still regularly invade privacy and build shadow profiles of users.

Whether what they are doing is legal or will go unpunished remains to be discovered. In the meanwhile there is a considerable increase in public awareness of (e.g.) how creepy facebook is (I know that the biggest facebook competitor is instagram, but there is a real difference between how people interact with the two platforms and also in expectations on how much public your profile and post are)

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

#19

Post by [deleted] »

SXX wrote: post #6
blatchcorn wrote: post #2

Apple is a 'use all of our products, or else we will make life inconvenient for you' company. The fact that this happens to offer some privacy benefits is just a strategy credit[1] [1] https://stratechery.com/2013/strategy-credit/

I'm not in any way an Apple fan and only look at their ecosystem via VM, but I curious. What company have more convenient integration of both own proprietary services and 3rd-party one? As I see it with Apple you can be at least fairly sure their products going to have good integration within their closed-garden ecosystem. With anyone else not even this is guaranteed and you'll likely be bombarded by ads. I'm among t…

[deleted]

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

#20

Post by adarsh_thampy »

Apple's strategy is simple.

They want to retain control over their customers; at the same time, force the developers into relying entirely on Apple as a middle man so that they can't cut Apple out of any transactions.

This way, Apple gets their cut and user's get some level of privacy.

That they can get away with this arm-twisting as "privacy" is to give credit to their brand positioning.

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