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Apple Launches iOS 11.3 With Raft of Privacy Features (theguardian.com)
Apple is launching a major privacy push, with software updates across all its devices to introduce new data privacy information immediately, with an updated website offering new privacy management tools to follow in May. From a report: Thursday's updates (macOS 10.13.4, iOS11.3 and tvOS 11.3) are prompted by the enormous new European data protection regulation GDPR, and have been in the works since at least January. But they come at a good time for the company, whose head Tim Cook has been merrily capitalising on the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, publicly rebuking Mark Zuckerberg over the social network's business model. For users of the company's devices, the biggest change will be the introduction of a unified data privacy iconography, which now shows up alongside detailed information about how Apple uses personal data for its various first-party services. "Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right," the company will tell every user the first time they turn on their devices after the update, "so every Apple product is designed to minimise the collection and use of your data, use on-device processing whenever possible, and provide transparency and control over your information."
I gotta give it to the EU parliament for GDPR, I mean, it may not be the cage shaking of epic proportion, but it's something. That shit was never going to happen in the United States, ever.
This still changes little to none --- ok, it makes us now aware of shit we always knew anyway, but decided to turn a consumer blind eye too because was saw something fucking 'shiny'. I hold myself accountable and gullible just as anyone else. It is not like eating that last Krispy Kreme doughnut in the break room when you know you didn't ever fucking need it? And doing it over and over again with each new social media platform you just had to be a part of, knowing full well that 'free' means a loosening the belt every time you sit back down at your desk until you gotta go buy new Dockers at Macy's?
I see this as little more than altered perception comfort-food icon eye candy for all of us to say, "See look, this isn't as intrusive as this one!". It's just another dangly, shiny piece to distract you. It's just implied compliance to exactly to what was said, nothing more, nothing less, to make you feel better. There's still zero disclosure and whatever was given up, there's already a new, unknown backdoor way of just doing it under our noses again.