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A Message to Our Customers(apple.com)

almost 8 years ago from Jérémy Barbet, Front-end developer @ Ueno.

  • Pierre de MillyPierre de Milly, almost 8 years ago

    I can't count the times people are talking about privacy and data mining models and someone says something in the line of "they're all the same anyway, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.".

    It's not true, some companies are actually fighting FOR their customers on this subject and I'm glad Apple is one of them.

    8 points
    • Ethan BondEthan Bond, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

      Oh totally. Security has been one constant driver of loyalty to Apple in the past few years.

      A crucial difference between Google/Facebook et al. and Apple is that Google and Facebook have absolutely no defense from a court order. They're ad-supported companies. They need to have the ability to read your private data, because they're parsing it for ad targeting.

      Apple can say "we don't have the keys." Google/Facebook cannot. Further, Google/Facebook can't restructure their systems to defend against this. Given that ads are their only revenue streams and they're publicly traded companies with a legal obligation to their shareholders, they could also get in trouble for trying to fix this.

      You're certainly familiar with the tiresome "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product." I'd contend that we actually are paying for the product – just with our privacy and security instead of with money.

      3 points