281–290 of 348 posts
In addition to the comments already here, I think this comes down to trust. Which companies do you trust? Which CEOs do you trust? Eric Schmidt: "If You Have Something You Don't Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn't Be Doing It." [1] Mark Zuckerburg: "They trust me — dumb fucks." [2] Tim Cook: "I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their busin…
Making a speech is easy, compared to actually doing the right thing. Just a month ago, I was asked by an employee of an Apple Certified Service Provider to decrypt my hard drive in order for Apple to make a "hardware test". There was an issue with my display, but they insisted that Apple's hardware test needed to have access to the data on my hard drive and send information back to Apple via the Internet. What about…
My out-of-warranty MBP needed a new battery because the original battery had started to swell up. I called my local Apple Authorized Service Provider (the only one within 250km) what the procedure was if I wanted to purchase a new battery. They said I would need to drop off the computer with them; they would order a new battery and I could have it back in a week or so. I said I couldn’t do without the computer and I…
Apple collects tons of user data, and I'm sure they use some of it to provide machine-learning backed services, and I'm sure they'll come out with much nicer products to compete with Google in the future, also enhanced by machine learning techniques. The difference that Tim Cook wants you to believe in is that Apple doesn't directly make money from your data, they just use it to improve their product; alternatively,…
It feels like the same underlining luxery branding of Apple products. Those guys are tacky and cheap, we are HBO. Apple doesn't even own a TV, they go to the art house theater... With the car industry about do become part of the ecosystem it makes sense. Get in a Google Taxi and you'll have to watch targeted ads the whole way there. Get in an Apple Taxi and listen to classical music.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Currently Mozilla is the only Internet company that I trust not to sell me out. And I'm keeping an eye on them as they develop the new New Tab, which will feature advertising.
I know Mozilla are a non profit but doesn't most of their funding come from google (I.e advertising) for promoting their search product?
In addition to the comments already here, I think this comes down to trust. Which companies do you trust? Which CEOs do you trust? Eric Schmidt: "If You Have Something You Don't Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn't Be Doing It." [1] Mark Zuckerburg: "They trust me — dumb fucks." [2] Tim Cook: "I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their busin…
Words are cheap. Trust is gained by actions.
In addition to the comments already here, I think this comes down to trust. Which companies do you trust? Which CEOs do you trust? Eric Schmidt: "If You Have Something You Don't Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn't Be Doing It." [1] Mark Zuckerburg: "They trust me — dumb fucks." [2] Tim Cook: "I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their busin…
At the moment, this thread seems more like a YouTube comment section than a HN one. Though it's not exactly surprising given that Tim Cook's speech is obviously aimed at Google/FB. Let's start with the facts. Apple makes its major money in hardware. Google makes its major money in search. Obviously, iOS has to be able to compete with Android in order for iPhones to sell well. Google offers services like Google Now an…
I don't think Tim Cook specifically rejects the collection of data on customers. I think he is pro-collection of data where it helps improve customer experience. His criticism is for companies whose model of business involves selling guided access to customer attention, aka Google and Facebook. His criticism is for what you do with that data. He would probably say that Apple uses its data to help its customers, while…
Which sounds exactly like posturing to me. Contrast this with what he says about back doors - if it's there a key under the mat for cops, the bad guys will get it. The same applies to data collection - the motives behind the collection don't matter. If data is collected, sooner or later some of it will fall into the hands of a 3rd party the user didn't expect - possibly bad guys (through legal discovery, a hack, bankruptcy sale, or some NSA ALL-CAPS program).
The right thing for privacy is to not collect the data, but Apple is unwilling to take that business decision (imagine how bad Siri would be if voice data wasn't sent to a backend).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a lot of tracking Google does that couldn't just be instantly turned on at the request of a government if Google wasn't already doing it. For example Google Analytics: if that product didn't exist the government couldn't just ask Google to install tracking scripts on half the websites in the world without anybody noticing. You could argue that the government could force Google to create and market Google Ana…
By that argument CDNs shouldn't exist, since the government could theoretically compel them to inject code into the sites they serve.