Much of this criticism seems misplaced or invalid. Apple tracks your IMEI? Well, sure, unless you choose otherwise, and they've given you a convenient place to turn off. Apple chipsets track your location down to the meter? Well, yes, that's a feature most people enjoy - and they've given you a convenient place to turn off, if you don't. Apple is using third party app Siri interactions to train Siri? How is this even a privacy issue... has any real world privacy problem ever occurred because of this? If you don't want Apple to hear your voice or process your Siri requests... don't use Siri? They've given you a convenient place to turn it off.
The only one I agree on is the image scanning for CSAM. The idea of a device I own acting as a state informer using AI to detect what it thinks is a crime is not my idea of a step forward.
The likely reasoning behind this, although unspoken, was to (at some point in the future) enable E2EE for iCloud Photos. Currently, Apple doesn't do nearly any CSAM scanning on iCloud Photos[0], so the FBI et al. are pushing for them to change that - instead of licensing PhotoDNA, they tried to create something that would keep image data out of their hands while not further enabling CSAM distributors.
0: "According to NMEC, Apple submitted 205 reports in 2019 (a third my my reporting volume). Apple increased a little, to 265 in 2020, but then dropped in 2021 to only 160 reports. That's nearly a 22% decrease over two years!" https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/955-NC...
Yes. People who don't quite understand how Siri works will divulge a lot of personal information. There's many stories from workers at these third parties about how much intimate detail they've heard when listening to these clips.
Now, that said, Google and Amazon do this too. It's truly a strike against all providers.
Assuming those internet stories are even true - can anyone show me actual harm occurring to anyone based on Apple's use of Siri training? I've heard some Alexa stories, but frankly, Apple seems to do a really good job of protecting that information, at least so far, at least as far as the public knows.
There's also a convenient place to turn it off: CSAM scanning doesn't happen if you don't use iCloud photos/files syncing.
With Google, it was all true and still is...
My TV also doesn't have data as its main business model, however ... it still collects data on me.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/report-apple-is-expl...
It's puzzling to me how this keeps getting repeated without any strong foundation. This story that others sell your data while Apple holds it secure is a narrative established by Apple that keeps coming up like a mantra.
The implication is that Google is gathering personal data to then then sell it to third parties.
But this is not their business model. They profile their customers via their behaviors and personal data, match them to a persona and then sell services to third parties to advertise to users fitting that persona.
I don't see how Apple is doing any less of customer profiling and persona generating than Google. They are both in the business of profiling their users and then monetizing them by offering services to internal/external customers who look for a certain audience.
The core of this is exactly the same between Apple and Google. Neither of them is selling the user-data directly, they both process it in order to package their users into a service they can sell to others.
The main thing that Apple does differently is, that they took stronger measures to ensure that the data THEY collect from their users can only be collected by THEM.
So Apple took action to protect their unique market position of selling ANY kind of goods to users of Apple products, and they claim that they are more honorable to hold and process all your data for financial gain just because (so far) they failed to compete in the advertising industry.
No, the implication is that Google collects as much of your personal data as possible, stores it forever, and monetizes it. You can tell because that's what I actually said. What you're responding to is a red herring - you brought up third parties, not me.
If I use the Apple Mail app with default settings from my iCloud account to e-mail ten lawn care services, I won't start seeing web ads for lawn care. If I use Gmail with default settings, I will.
> The main thing that Apple does differently is, that they took stronger measures to ensure that the data THEY collect from their users can only be collected by THEM.
No, the main thing that Apple does differently is make their money by selling hardware, software, and services directly to end users. This is in stark contrast to Google, whose typical business model offers free services that make the end users into the saleable product.
Lost a lot of credibility here by including Apple employees, as that’s not a thing.
Honestly this just reads as a bunch if FUD for what appears to be no reason. There’s no new info, no new perspective, no attempt at fair explanation of why those things might actually be desirable for the customer…
Just a bunch of bad faith interpretations of how an iPhone works to try and scare or confuse the reader, and no discernible reason for why.
This wouldn't be an issue if iCloud was E2EE, but they probably save a chunk of money by only storing one copy of the "meme du jour" on their servers.
Would an apple employee be able to view icloud without the 2nd factor to pull down the decryption key?
In a well-run organisation this power would only be available to a small number of employees, would require a good reason and multiple people's authorisation, and would produce audit records. Is Apple such an organisation? Nobody knows.
The idea of taking Apple seriously on privacy is a bit of bad joke when they block Firefox having ublock origin or implement at least the same for its Safari, and give users full option to install plugins for this browser (even if only from Apple-curated plugin store). It would be trivial for army of Apple devs to create similar blocking, yet they just curate what ads you see based on what they think is maximum acceptable amount & type for users, so no real privacy choice there.
I've heard even comments here on HN about how its actually a good thing to not have this freedom as 'power user'. Can't say I know how to respond to such schizophrenia so I'll pass on that, everybody can make up their own opinion.
Apple - fix this, and I will start taking your PR about security seriously. Till then, I simply can't since its obvious you talk more than actually do where it matters most, the wild unruly Internet of these days.
Apple saw how damaging the iCloud privacy scandal and Cambridge Analytica were. They responded by fully hitching Apple’s brand to the privacy train.
If Apple were to be caught intentionally violating user privacy now, the damage to the brand would be immense.
Apple makes their money primarily by selling cool stuff to people. If they tarnish their brand by violating people’s privacy like Google or Meta, end users have far less incentive to buy Apple’s products.
[0] https://www.barrons.com/articles/apples-advertising-business...
I just started reading and there is already a sentence I don't believe very much, even less as a generalization. Does anyone here have a basis that could explain this bold statement ?
It's just wrong. On iPhones, Airplane Mode turns off all radios except Bluetooth.
I doubt there is any proof that some kind of system activity is still taking place while in airplane mode, but that might be irrelevant.
For some people, depending on their threat model and personal preference, what's important is that it's impossible to prove beyond any doubt that this is _not_ the case.
To me, this seems really dishonest.
You can also easily turn off "Maps" tracking or limit it the same way if you choose.
I got to admit that I don't see the meat in this burger, so to speak.
Thats just plain wrong. Poorly researched article.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the iPhone, aside from Apple making most of their money selling real products not your data, is that every concern he had was accompanied by a setting to disable it
This is the reason why I have a certain degree of confidence in Apple’s privacy aspirations. Apple makes their money primarily by selling cool stuff to end users. Their business model heavily disincentives mass tracking.
Google and Meta couldn’t ever be as privacy-friendly as Apple, due to their business models.
Airplane mode leaves the cellular radio on? Not according to signal tests!
To mitigate telco surveillance, switch your number to VOIP and use burner SIM's or pretty good phone privacy.
(Human review with explanation and consultation with the doctor / police should have led to "ok, false positive this time".)
Android smartphones are indeed worse, but it's not the only alternative. Consider GNU/Linux phones if you care about privacy and want to support it: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 and https://pine64.org/pinephone.
There are also things like /e/OS (Edit: and GrapheneOS), but they are installed on Android phones and must obey their planned obsolescence due to the proprietary drivers (tied to an old Linux kernel).
How many years will a phone running these be usable on average?
[1] - https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-support
[2] - https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
[3] - https://e.foundation/
Oh no! The manufacturer of my phone knows the unique identifier they created and assigned to my phone? Whatever shall I do?
By not using a phone, because your carrier knows this information too and also sells this data (Apple does not).
