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Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

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Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#31

Post by _aavaa_ »

kccqzy wrote: post #16
uoaei wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any examples of this being done?

It's all a matter of definitions. For example, Google doesn't sell user data to third parties, does that make Google respect user privacy a lot better than other ad companies? Sure yes. But Google often takes user data from one product and uses it for targeting in a different product, and it doesn't respect user privacy as much as a non-ad company.

> Google doesn't sell user data to third parties

Ad companies generally don't. Data brokers will set user data, but advertisement based companies do not sell user data.

> does that make Google respect user privacy a lot better than other ad companies?

"better" is the operative word in that statement. Just because Google spies on me and is slightly less worse about how they use that data, does not mean that they respect my privacy.

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#32

Post by sfe22 »

nawgz wrote: post #3

Ads are taking over the world because they're actually just a propaganda vehicle and control is the only thing worth money Regulation is too toothless to do anything about it so I think we'll naturally see all corporations evolve this way

And why would government fix it if ads are propaganda tool? Shouldn’t it start using it to advance its interest and fix bigger issues?

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#33

Post by noizejoy »

colordrops wrote: post #7
andreysolsty wrote: post #2

You can be an ad company and respect your users privacy. They’re not mutually exclusive as the headline seems to suggest.

Unsubstantiated claims can be responded to with unsubstantiated replies. Being an ad company and respecting user privacy are completely at odds. The incentives are misaligned.

How about companies that purely advertise via:

* bill boards and similar

* printed media ads

* ads that respond to keyword searches - without relying on any other user data

* display ads on topical websites (e.g. guitar ads on guitar related websites) - without relying on any other user data

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#34

Post by noizejoy »

kccqzy wrote: post #16
uoaei wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any examples of this being done?

It's all a matter of definitions. For example, Google doesn't sell user data to third parties, does that make Google respect user privacy a lot better than other ad companies? Sure yes. But Google often takes user data from one product and uses it for targeting in a different product, and it doesn't respect user privacy as much as a non-ad company.

Google collects massive amounts of user data from visits to non-Google properties via Google Analytics and AdSense.

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#36

Post by account-5 »

pifm_guy wrote: post #26
andreysolsty wrote: post #2

You can be an ad company and respect your users privacy. They’re not mutually exclusive as the headline seems to suggest.

> be an ad company and respect your users privacy As an ad broker , you usually cannot. If you respect the users privacy, and another competing ad broker does not, then the competitor will make better ad placement decisions, get a higher click through rate, and give advertisers better ROI. Therefore, the ad broker that respects privacy will get less and less business and die. The only way an ad broker can respect pri…

I've always wondered how apple gets away with its monopolies when other companies don't/can't.

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#37

Post by [deleted] »

Someone wrote: post #24
smoldesu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you be an ad company and respect your users, though? Google and Microsoft failed to do this, not because they didn't protect their user's identity but because they kept squeezing for more and more cash when the UX was already hurting. I'm not confident that Apple can resist those temptations (judging by the way they treat their own native advertising).

Adding advertising likely will cost them hardware sales. if so, their hardware branch might have enough clout to keep their advertising branch under control. Phrased another way: adding a few billions of advertising revenue wouldn’t make Apple an advertising company, just as selling smartphones hasn’t made Google a hardware company

[deleted]

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#38

Post by alexbeloi »

andreysolsty wrote: post #2

You can be an ad company and respect your users privacy. They’re not mutually exclusive as the headline seems to suggest.

They aren't mutually exclusive, but their incentives are opposed, usually the incentives bringing in the money win.

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#39

Post by smoldesu »

Someone wrote: post #24
smoldesu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you be an ad company and respect your users, though? Google and Microsoft failed to do this, not because they didn't protect their user's identity but because they kept squeezing for more and more cash when the UX was already hurting. I'm not confident that Apple can resist those temptations (judging by the way they treat their own native advertising).

Adding advertising likely will cost them hardware sales. if so, their hardware branch might have enough clout to keep their advertising branch under control. Phrased another way: adding a few billions of advertising revenue wouldn’t make Apple an advertising company, just as selling smartphones hasn’t made Google a hardware company

They already have advertising, at least in MacOS. Every time I put on my headphones I get a pop-up ad for Apple Music, and I can't hide iCloud or Safari's constant nagging to get me to use them.

Everyone has their own limits, but I left the ecosystem after Mojave (with this being one reason).

Re: Apple is becoming an ad company despite privacy claims

#40

Post by noizejoy »

Lovely free advertising for Proton. Very smart blog post, since numerous employees and fans of Apple competitors, as well as anyone who dislikes Apple for whatever reason, has plenty motivation to upvote this post.

Also: Calling someone an ad company when approximately 1% of revenue seems to be generated by ads would seem quite a stretch.

Also: Being tracked while on someone’s property isn’t exactly the same as tracking someone across unrelated properties.

Also: Every company with a decent CRM system and culture has been tracking all kinds of (often personal) details about their (potential) customers gathered from their interactions and whatever sources they could get their hands on. This has been going on since before the Internet was widely used.

But while this blog post (attack ad?) doesn’t seem to have that much meaningful substance, it’s also kind of just doing the same to Apple as Apple often does to others.

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