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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

#101

Post by omnifischer »

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…

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.

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

#102

Post by donkeyd »

mirimir wrote: post #98
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.

Until a month or two ago, I was believing that Apple was committed to protecting its customers' privacy. Sure, it had been caving to the Chinese government. But I accepted that it had to, or stop doing business in China. And then I learned that Apple does not guarantee that apps from its online store respect users' privacy. That rather gives the lie to its commitment to privacy. I mean, it did (along with Google) tak…

Have you looked at the keynote? They'll now be blocking a bunch of the tracking techniques that these apps use. Yes, you're right about the past, but they're making changes to be better in the future.

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

#103

Post by Ntrails »

braythwayt wrote: post #95
banachtarski wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It’s not a dichotomy, so I will just say that in addition to circumventing the app store’s take, developers have users to “blame” for the race-to-the-bottom of the surveillance capitalism bucket. As long as users will balk at paying even 4.99 for an app, developers will make them free and then engage in dark business models like surveillance and terrible in-app purchases. To be fair and stop “blaming the victims,” th…

> 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.

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

#104

Post by donkeyd »

tty2300 wrote: post #89
mqbqi wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also they didn't hack iCloud, they hacked the accounts of those users.

Which most likely means someone downloaded a leaked database of another website and logged in to icloud because everyone reuses passwords.

It was part this, but also big part social engineering. Here's a podcast about it:

https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/34/?utm_source=share&utm_...

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

#106

Post by FighterMafia »

grumdan wrote: post #28
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.

Whether it's because of their business model is an important question though, because it may tell us if we this has a good chance of being genuine and whether we can expect this to last. If it's in their financial interest to protect users' privacy, then I'm much more inclined to believe that they are actually trying to do that. If they right now appear to care about privacy, but it's for some other reason, I'd expec…

Its in their financial interest because it casts a halo on the brand and incentivizes people to buy iphones.

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

#107

Post by rapsey »

propertymagnate wrote: post #93
rapsey wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thriving as in their own miniscule segment destined to remain marginal. Definitely not apple target market.

I'm not arguing that, I'm responding to this part of your comment, by showing products the privacy obsessed segment are presumably happy with as they are paying for: "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."

Human languages are not code. Statements have meaning within a context.

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

#109

Post by WA »

Ntrails wrote: post #103
braythwayt wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a dichotomy, so I will just say that in addition to circumventing the app store’s take, developers have users to “blame” for the race-to-the-bottom of the surveillance capitalism bucket. As long as users will balk at paying even 4.99 for an app, developers will make them free and then engage in dark business models like surveillance and terrible in-app purchases. To be fair and stop “blaming the victims,” th…

> 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.

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

#110

Post by wycy »

olivermarks wrote: post #88

My cynical side read this as cheap/free = google/android who own your data in return for their services vs expensive = Apple who are selling you some degree of perceived privacy baked into the operating systems of their primarily hardware offerings, which you pay more for.

Sure, but that's the always-acknowledged reality. Either you're paying for the product, or you are the product.
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