Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex” • Hacker News Board

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#461

Post by jhabdas » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:09 PM UTC

kodablah wrote: post #453

IBM wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the exact time stamp so you can hear his answer yourself: https://youtu.be/VD1cP8SK3Q0?t=244 >Why are public statements about privacy always about the US or EU but never China? As much as Apple/Cook may believe privacy is a human right, and have seemingly extracted some important concessions regarding their products, they aren't going to shoot themselves in the head so everyone can feel good about Apple public…

Had to watch with CC on, no audio for me atm. But he is saying the encryption is the same around the world and they own the keys. I'm afraid this doesn't allay fears of blanket data access. But a simple public statement on Apple's website like "we only provide icloud data on per user requests" or "we do not give the Chinese government large swaths of data". Or how about something as simple as "We disagree with the la…

At ~5:26.500 Tim says, "In many cases for us, you and the receiver hold the keys." Okay great. So their encryption "is the same everywhere in the world" and, therefore, anyone (except Tim, apparently) can look at your encrypted messages.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#462

Post by kylnew » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:11 PM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #417

kylnew wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that appears to be the way they are going. If they are working to extend the life of devices even further in coming years that seems to support this direction.

Over time the resources required to run the OS itself should go up slower than the hardware has increased in capability in the last few years. While the next iOS release may require an iPhone 6 or 6S, I expect it will be quite a while before it changes base requirements again after that.

The only thing that the iPhone 6 can't do which I know of is ARKit, which seems to be one of the most hardware intensive things phones are capable.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#463

Post by thinkling » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:19 PM UTC

RestlessMind wrote: post #388

jimbokun wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is also the only major computing player that doesn't make its revenue primarily off of mining and exploiting user data. Maybe Microsoft, too? Certainly the rest of FAANG have huge financial temptations to misuse their data. So Apple is the one big technology player whose interests are most closely aligned with the consumer in terms of supporting data privacy.

Amazon, fwiw, has giant revenue streams (AWS, retail) that they can pile on the privacy bandwagon and attack Google / Facebook / rest of the shitty adtech. In fact, it would be great if Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Mozilla et al all combine their forces and propose strong privacy friendly regulations.

Amazon has gotten into the advertising business [1] and I believe are growing quickly. I find it a disturbing move on their part; I have to trust that they're not mining my purchase history for ad targeting. If they do do so, it may be susceptible to targeted discovery. (Run ads with unique URLs for each selection keyword; everyone who sees the ad is apparently someone who bought that kind of product.) I hope Amazon is smart about the risks they take.

[1] https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/09/23/amazon-is-now-the-...

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#464

Post by rifung » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:19 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #147

jason46 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what would apple use if google was not paying, or if google charged apple? This seems backwards to me.

They're literally the biggest tech company in the world. Couldn't they build their own? I mean, it wouldn't be great at first but seems like a worthwhile project (and Microsoft managed it with Bing, so there's precedent there).

I work for Google but not on Search.

I think the issue is that besides the money they don't really have a competitive advantage so it'd be difficult to catch up given how long Google has been doing this for.

First of all Search is well outside their domain expertise; they aren't really well known for doing either search/MI or even web services well.

Secondly, it takes a long time just to get all the infrastructure set up. There is an unbelievable amount of build/test/deploy infrastructure that Google has been able to set up over the many years of doing search. I certainly think Apple has engineers smart enough to make it happen but in the end building the stuff takes a large amount of time.

And this is all assuming they use AWS/GCP/Azure instead of deploying their own data centers.

It's very much the same difficulty that Google has trying to make hardware to compete with Apple. They have so much experience and expertise in that area already. There's no way Google could make a phone faster than the iPhone: Apple makes their own chips! So instead Google has to compete in the areas where they have a competitive advantage, for example by using AI to make very good cameras.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#465

Post by bfuller » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:23 PM UTC

burtonator wrote: post #258

I'd like to think I'm one of the good guys here. I was one of the inventors of RSS and Atom and worked to push open content and social media. I started a social data search platform named Datastreamer ( http://www.datastreamer.io/ ) which is basically a petabyte-scale content indexing engine. We provide API feeds to search engines and social media analytics companies needing bulk data but don't want to have to build…

Thank you.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#466

Post by nappy » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:30 PM UTC

This is pretty much a textbook example of an attempt at regulatory capture, though more explicitly aimed at hurting competition than normal.[0] It's hard to take Apple as sincerely looking out for the best interests of consumers given their stance against repairs.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#467

Post by TeMPOraL » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:40 PM UTC

geezerjay wrote: post #439

TeMPOraL wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely can. Politics follows technology, not the other way around. At minimum, technology gives politicians new options .

That's patently false. If tech was the panacea you're suggesting, free speech would be the norm and there would be zero concerns regarding privacy.

I'm not saying it is the panacea, or that it only has consequences. Just that technology drives social and political developments, not the other way around. Our current technology does promote free speech[0], and does promote lack of privacy. That's why you see politicians fighting with the Internet on curtailing free speech, and promoting privacy.

Politics and social customs are all about taking particular spots on a landscape of choices. Technology shapes that very landscape.

--

- [0] - note how difficult it is to really censor anything these days, or curtail someone's audience; hell, if anything, technology is showing that ubiquitous free speech has some negative consequences too.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#468

Post by danaris » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:40 PM UTC

leereeves wrote: post #436

danaris wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is from nine years ago, when the iOS App Store (then just the iPhone App Store, as the iPad didn't even exist yet!) was less than 2 years old. Calling that "a bit too soon to forget" seems...problematic on several levels.

Why? They continue to use their control of the app store for financial gain. The clock on forgiveness doesn't start until the abuse stops.

When you're replying to a comment pointing out that there are, in fact, lots of competing apps, and your comment claiming that they're still evil points to an article from nine years ago, you don't demonstrate much credibility to your claims.

I think your clocks are just broken.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#469

Post by joejerryronnie » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:44 PM UTC

danaris wrote: post #332

joejerryronnie wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My concern with a post-Jobs Apple is not their ability to iterate on existing product lines. I'm not confidant Apple can shift paradigms and disrupt whole industries the way the did under Jobs' leadership.

You know that happened twice, maybe three times, right? The iPod and the iPhone were it (and maybe the iPad). It's not something Apple did twice a week like clockwork while Jobs was alive, then just suddenly stopped when he died. This is exactly the kind of rose-colored glasses nneonneo was talking about.

Here are some things I can think of off the top of my head that Jobs had a hand in during his career:

- Created the personal computer industry (Apple Inc)

- Revolutionized the personal computer industry (Macintosh)

- Revolutionized film animation (Pixar)

- Shifted the electronic device industry to minimalist industrial design (iPod)

- Changed the entire music industry's distribution model (iTunes)

- Completely shifted the paradigm of a cellular phone and arguably began the adoption of the mobile internet (iPhone)

There are several other things people may consider visionary (candy colored iMac, getting rid of floppy drives, OSX, Newton, stuff at NeXT, tech advertising with the 1984 & Think Different campaigns, etc). I'm not even including things like the iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, health metrics, etc which Jobs may have been working on before his death. Clearly Jobs had lots of help along the way and is not singularly responsible for each of these things - but he's the one who oversaw and, in many cases, drove the vision.

I'm no Apple fanboy and Jobs had a very dark side to his particular brand of genius, but I find it incredibly disingenuous to dismiss the impact that Jobs had on Apple and the industry in general. Tim Cook is a very solid Tech CEO, maybe even a great operational leader, but he is not a visionary leader and my concern is that Apple lost a fundamental element with the passing of Jobs.

Re: Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

#470

Post by zaidf » Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 7:44 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #430

Kaveren wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like a privileged position to argue that there's no downside to people having smartphones. Many people are unable to regularly access decent laptops or desktops. Internet access is essential. The Internet lets you communicate with friends and family, access a massive trove of knowledge quickly (freeing up education), discuss current events, and all manner of other things. Even personally as a well to do Amer…

Internet access is essential. Now that is the voice of privilege! Clean drinking water is essential. A smartphone is merely a luxury and one that is not without consequences - just as cigarettes are a luxury.

Nothing is without consequences. Take water. People die daily from having too much water in their system.