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You seem to think an institution the size of Apple is able to turn on a dime and change their entire modus operandi. That is some kind of supervillain logic, and I don’t think it’s true at all of real world institutions their size.

Their recent focus on “privacy” is a happy accident of how they make money. They are uniquely positioned to brag about how little data they collect, because they make money off luxury hardware and service fees, not data hoarding. Ultimately that’s why it’s trustworthy - the entire way they run their business happens to be aligned with privacy as a value, so we don’t just have to judge their character to believe it.

It’s the exact opposite of Google, whose business has always run on targeted advertisement, and thus is fundamentally at odds with privacy.

For this to change substantially even in 5 years, both of the companies would have to go through fundamental and opposing transformations. I find that extremely unlikely.

1 comments

This is a response I find odd. Do you think that apple are completely incapable of selling the data they have collected on you literally tomorrow if they choose to today? It's hardly turning on a dime to provide someone with database access for a fee. Or they could start a secret project to do it themselves next year. It's a crapload easier than building a new phone. Relying on your trust of apple for things you don't want to happen being prevented is just a mistake.

You don't actually think they haven't collected the data and stored it, do you? I mean you really can't be thinking that, right?

> Relying on your trust of apple for things you don't want to happen being prevented is just a mistake.

Again, my trust of Apple (relative to Google) in this regard fundamentally does not come from a moral judgement of some kind. Google is built on hoarding and monetizing user data, so they are likely to do it at a larger scale, more efficiently, etc. Of course Apple has all sorts of information about me as a user, but because of the business they’re in, they’re going to be less hungry for it than Google.

You can say the opposite about the “walled garden” discussion. That’s Apple’s game. Even though Google can play it too, they’re likely to do it to a lesser extent, because it’s not quite as valuable for their business.

They collect the information. All of it. Everything they can. And no doubt some things they aren't allowed to. Do you doubt it? They absolutely will f&^k you over with it. Do you doubt it?

"But they aren't so good at f&^king me over as someone else, yet."

This is just an astoundingly hideous support of apple but yes, it's about the only one that isn't totally and completely false. Good luck with that, to us all. This is where we're up to. Needs to be said out loud often.

Degrees of disgusting, awful, hideousness beyond totally unacceptable are really only of academic interest to ghouls.