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Apple CEO Tim Cook Says Giving Up Your Data For Better Services is 'a Bunch of Bunk' (washingtonpost.com)
Apple chief executive Tim Cook urged consumers not to believe the dominant tech industry narrative that the data collected about them will lead to better services. From a report: In an interview with "Vice News Tonight" that aired Tuesday, Cook highlighted his company's commitment to user privacy, positioning Apple's business as one that stands apart from tech giants that compile massive amounts of personal data and sell the ability to target users through advertising [The link may be paywalled; alternative source]. "The narrative that some companies will try to get you to believe is: I've got to take all of our data to make my service better," he said. "Well, don't believe them. Whoever's telling you that, it's a bunch of bunk." [...] Cook said in the interview that he is "exceedingly optimistic" that the topic of data privacy has reached an elevated level of public debate. "When the free market doesn't produce a result that's great for society you have to ask yourself what do we need to do. And I think some level of government regulation is important to come out on that."
Shame he seems to like censorship almost as much as he likes privacy.
/e/
https://e.foundation/
The key difference between Google/Facebook business model vs Apple is how they make money.
Apple you buy expensive hardware, for more money, but your data and privacy is managed much better.
Vs.
Google/Facebook where you may get the same hardware for cheaper, but your data is sold to compensate for it.
It is akin paying for a vacation, vs. getting a cheaper vacation but have to sit threw a time share presentation.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Realistically, people don't care about privacy. They happily toss up their private photos of their bedroom escapades on photo sites which have a EULA where the photos become the sites' property and can be sold as stock photos any time. They use E-mail providers which happily go through everything and sell that info to anyone who wants it.
Tim Cook overestimates what people want. If Apple started indexing and selling the results of what is stashed in iCloud, including iPhone backups, people would applaud Apple for doing so.
So that must be why when you boot up an iPhone for the first time it tells you that it sends all your person information to Apple and forces you to hit Agree to this before you can do anything with it. Because Apple respects your privacy. I guess modern Apple forgot that their "1984" ad was saying that they'd make it so computing WASN'T like 1984, not an inspiration for their corporate ideals.
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/18/09/21/009210/apple-will-judge-call-email-activity-to-assign-users-a-trust-score
Privacy is good, but I also remember the first time I saw how Google was using that information it gathers to benefit me when I loaded up the Google Assistant app thingy a few years back and it just barfed out all kinds of convenient details about what I had going on. Travel times, package delivery statuses, etc. Obviously there's plenty of bad things that could happen with that information but IF it's anonymized well enough and I get a cheaper product and/or more intelligent service, it's worth it.
Every time I compare Siri and what Apple offers via our iPad to what Google offers through Android, I'm struck by how much more accurate, useful, or contextually insightful Google's responses are. That takes data, and by not collecting and using more of that data, Apple can't keep up.
Are those benefits worth the potential risks? That's up to each individual to decide, but it's not like they're really offering the same services.
Presently here, but not there.
Haha, says the guy with the bottom wrung voice assistant.
But but but....gree^H^H^H^HINNOVATION!
Just because they don't serve up adverts doesn't mean they're saints.
Apple collects data on users too, because the opportunity when you have a camera, microphone, and access to their browsing and e-mail contents is too valuable to give up.
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Tim Cook rails against Google's privacy invading/trading business model yet earns a reported $9B/year to make Google the default search engine for Safari and various Apple services like Siri. In other words, Apple wont abuse user privacy themselves for profit - they get paid to enable Google to do it on their behalf.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-09-28/apple-looks-down-on-ads-but-takes-billions-from-google
because they generate most of their income by: a) selling real physical goods ('phones, etc); or b) taking a slice of others who sell into the Apple eco-system via the app store. It is much harder for the likes of facebook & google who do not charge people for their product and thus have to generate income by helping others put adverts in front of their users' eyes. This is not a criticism of Apple - but just explaining that they have a very different business model.
Having said all of that I agree with a lot of what Tim Cook says.
Says the guy who wants my credit card and login information so my mom can share her own music from one device to another in her own house. Piss up a rope.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Thanks, Tim..
It's about free. Google gets my info. In exchange I get YouTube, Maps, Android and their search engine for free. It's no different than getting free TV for adverts only everyone's a Nielsen family.
Also, and I keep saying this, but I have bigger things to worry about. Like the trade war going on, or paying for the $16k in tuition to my kid's in State college. Or the endless wars. Or bridge collapse. Or medical care. Or retirement. Or...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Apple has now decided they can make money by trying to sell their products on being better at privacy then others. How much you believe that is up to the consumer. No doubt Apple is less focused on making money with users data then say a Facebook or Google. But like Firefox and Mozilla also on the privacy bandwagon, not sure a lot of consumers really care.
^ THIS!!!
Scott Forstall was the best people choice. Just shows that SJ was clueless and full of shit himself.
So, you think you don't need user data in order to run services better. Fine. Great even. Now make Siri work even half as well as Google Assistant does. Hell, make it work as good as Cortana does even. Good freaking luck doing that without collecting more data though. Being able to tell you that you need to leave NOW for the airport instead of in 30 minutes like originally planned due to bad traffic requires that you have user data. Being able to do many things that both Google and Cortana can do require user data. Tim - make yours work like theirs do, but do it without my data and you win. I'm currently betting that you can't. But if you can - awesome.
t's mostly hackathon/stackoverflow/copy-paste bs, There doesn't seem to be much actual engineering or god forbid QA anymore.
He is a total asshole. Almost reaching jobs level asshole.
Damn, it must suck to be making $7.59 an hour. What are you 16?
Just have everything done through Apple - pay with ApplePay, subscribe to all the apps you use through the App Store, perpetually pay for iCloud storage.... what could possibly go wrong?
AC comments get piped to
You just made that up 100% out of thin air. DDG is and always has been an American company.
It's not BS. Giving your data to corporations because they tell you it's good for you is stupid. Do not trust corporations! (including Apple) Keep your data to yourself, even if some company whines that this hurts their profits.
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My personal privacy is definitely worth a few benjamins to me. Without a doubt.
even if some company whines that this hurts their profits
At least then that would be honest. Lying and saying that they need your data to serve you better, to perform "cloud" processing or anything else along those lines is complete and utter, 100% bullshit that only tech illiterates and morons would believe. The *only* reason for collecting your data is so the companies can get richer, without compensating you for your time and energy (and your computer's time, wear/stress and energy use). It's like free labour and free money to them.
I don't use software that has spyware/telemetry in it because I value privacy/security (they are one and the same) and I don't do the free labour that these companies should be paying a QA team for.
I don't use software that wants to phone home to check if an "update" (read: software changes but rarely actual improvements or optimisations) because I don't let software companies determine when something on *my* computer changes.
.....he says that now that Apple has brainwashed all of their legions of fanbois because they gave up their data...
Tim Cook says this: "When the free market doesn't produce a result that's great for society you have to ask yourself what do we need to do. And I think some level of government regulation is important to come out on that."
Yet, he's talking about the same "free market" that allowed Apple to make so much money. Last I recalled, he wasn't so keen on government regulation and interference when it was about restrictions on letting him repatriate money Apple earned abroad without getting taxed on it.
I prefer to use Qwant over DDG, as it comes from France, a country that has stricter privacy laws than the US.
Giving Up Your Data For Better Services is a Bunch of Bunk...
...says a man sitting atop one trillion dollars, some of which came from making boxes that you fill with your personal data.
checkmate fanbois!
"The narrative that some companies will try to get you to believe is: I've got to take all of our data to make my service better," he said. "Well, don't believe them"
Tim... you need to talk to your legal and product departments. Your EULA has the same provisions in it. It's also how Apple Maps gathers all of it's data, and how Siri (which does it's processing on Apple cloud servers like everyone else, NOT locally on the phone) knows anything at all about you.
"When the free market doesn't produce a result that's great for society you have to ask yourself what do we need to do. And I think some level of government regulation is important to come out on that."
I tend to agree, but do you really mean it, Mr. You Don't Have the Right to Fix Your Own Computer in 2018?
Because I sure think that right to repair regulation should be included in that.....
Says a man whose hardware business model is bloated and slow security updates (if you can get them at all) rendering devices barely out of their puppy years far slower than the day you bought them (even for simply things), soldering RAM onto the system board at 400% markup over street upgrades, and torpedoing the right to repair.