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Apple Took Out a CES Ad To Troll Its Competitors Over Privacy (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the for-what-it-is-worth dept.

An anonymous reader shared a report: Historically, Apple hasn't had an official presence at CES. It's not surprising given the company's success at hosting and hyping its own product launch events -- long before the iPod and iPhone brought Apple to the top of the technology mountain, Steve Jobs keynotes were can't miss events. The company is also very deliberate about its marketing campaigns; when I see Apple billboard ads, they focus on new product close-ups with minimal messaging. This is why the giant ad banner I saw when I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday for CES 2019 caught my eye. Positioned not far from the convention center where CES takes place, the sign is a cheeky riff on the old "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" slogan -- and with just a few words, it casts an Apple-shaped shadow over the convention.

5 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Free pass over privacy by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't understand why Google, Facebook, Twitter and a lot of other companies get a pass over privacy. It used to be that Apple, was a bad player in this area by unnecessary collecting data. While Apple didn't change, everyone else rushed into most outrageous abuses. So, sadly, now Apple is one of the better players in this area.

    1. Re:Free pass over privacy by fluffernutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's because people don't really care. I have to admit, I use an Android phone so I guess I am encouraging privacy violations. But the alternative is to lock myself into Apple's walled garden, inability to simply copy files to my phone, and instead have to use a format iTunes will be happy with or use a flaky in app transfer; I pick sacrificing my privacy.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Free pass over privacy by gnasher719 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It used to be that Apple, was a bad player in this area by unnecessary collecting data.

      Could you give some examples of that? Google is a company whose sole purpose is to collect data about you and hire it out to advertisers. Apple's purpose is to make devices and sell them to end users.

      Google was the company who quite accidentally added code to their ads when running on a Microsoft browser that went around the user's privacy settings, and quite accidentally added different code when running on Safari that went around the Safari user's privacy settings.

  2. PRISM by deadaluspark · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're still a PRISM partner with the US Government which means they are completely compromised and your data isn't safe at all. Why does anyone even buy these fucking advertisements? Did everyone already forget about the Ed Snowden leaks? Are my fellow countrymen really that insipid, thick, and forgetful?

  3. I just switched back to iPhone for this reason by Btrot69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I bought an iPhone on the first day in '07, cause it was obviously a great thing.

    In about 2012, I switched to Android, mostly cause I run linux everywhere else and like it.
    I thought I'd have more privacy, then slowly realized how stupid that was.
    Looked into Cyanogenmod and LineageOS over and over, but ran out of time to ever actually do it.

    Finally gave up, bit down, and went back to iPhone (it was a hand-me-down 6S)
    I really liked Android. Still lots that can't do on the iPhone.

    I really wish there was a better choice, but for now, I'm depending on Apple to keep the worst data harvesters at bay.

    With Google, you don't get that option, got burned too many times.