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0 pointshardnose3y ago0 comments

>The implication is that Google is gathering personal data to then then sell it to third parties.

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.

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rickdeckard3y ago

> 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.

That's because Apple doesn't operate ad-services on scale at this point, particularly not on the web. The fact that they are scanning each and every email was made clear when they announced their CSAM scanner you also mentioned. I strongly doubt that Apple operates a crime-fighting division and that is the only purpose of scanning content. It's much more likely that they already analyze messages and content with other ML-models to refine the persona they created of a user.

So yes,they don't show you personalized ads on webpages, but without them operating in ads that's not an indicator of privacy. After failing to compete on Ads since 2010, their effort just started to ramp up in the last year.

> No, the main thing that Apple does differently is make their money by selling hardware, software, and services directly to end users.

Agreed, but Hardware is a segment that is close to saturation, and the majority of SW R&D resources are spent on the OS which is provided free of charge when purchasing the Hardware. Their growth-strategy is quite obviously based on services, with the strongest-growing of them being platforms of consumption (Appstore, Music, TV,...) and platforms of data-aggregation (Cloud, Pay, Card, CarPlay, Homekit,...).

Those consumption platforms serve content of third parties competing with each other for the user, and as the platform provider Apple offers those sellers paid services to reach the user.

I am fine to disagree, but in the growing world of services which are about to reach 25% of Apple's revenue soon, the Apple user who created the hardware revenue is the product being sold by Apple. To App-Developers, Music publishers, Movie Studios, Mobile carriers,...

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