“In 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook penned a missive regarding Apple’s approach to privacy. In the letter Cook famously noted, ‘A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product,'” Jamal Carnette writes for The Motley Fool. “Cook was mostly looking to contrast the business model of Apple, which involves mostly making money on device sales, versus that of Alphabet, which often sells devices at breakeven to make money from advertising and data collection.”
“The recent Facebook scandal may be even worse for the company. For Android-based users with the Facebook app, the company has a file that includes nearly every phone call and text message you’ve fired off on your phone” Carnette writes. “Due to Cook’s stronger privacy stance, as noted above, Facebook does not have this information for iOS users.”
“It is my opinion Apple will minorly benefit as security will become more important to a small subset of smartphone shoppers, many of whom will defect from Alphabet’s Android to Apple or will more firmly lock them into the iOS ecosystem. It’s likely most people will not change their behavior or limit their data,” Carnette writes. “It’s likely data concerns will become more important in the future and Apple is in a safer position than many other big tech companies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This may finally be the beginning of Apple benefiting from their strict user privacy stance.
SEE ALSO:
Mark Zuckerberg blasts Apple CEO Cook’s criticism of Facebook as ‘extremely glib and not at all aligned with the truth’ – April 2, 2018
Apple CEO Cook: Facebook should have self-regulated, but it’s too late for that now – March 28, 2018
U.S. FTC will investigate Facebook over privacy or lack thereof – March 26, 2018
Apple CEO Cook calls for more data oversight, ‘well-crafted regulation’ after Facebook debacle – March 26, 2018
Facebook has been collecting call history and SMS data from Android devices for years; Apple iOS devices unaffected – March 25, 2018
Apple CEO Cook ramps up pressure on Facebook, calls for more regulations on data privacy – March 24, 2018
Steve Jobs tried to warn Mark Zuckerberg about privacy in 2010 – March 23, 2018
Facebook has gotten too big, too powerful, too influential for Mark Zuckerberg to handle – March 23, 2018
How to block Facebook completely from your Mac – March 22, 2018
How Facebook made it impossible to delete Facebook – March 22, 2018
What to expect from Facebook’s Zuckerberg if he testifies before Congress – March 21, 2018
Why Facebook’s blatant disregard for users’ privacy could be very good for Apple – March 21, 2018
Facebook’s surveillance machine – March 21, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg AWOL from Facebook’s damage control session – March 20, 2018
U.S. FTC reportedly probing Facebook’s abuse of personal data as UK summons Zuckerberg for questioning – March 20, 2018
The problem isn’t Cambridge Analytica: It’s Facebook – March 19, 2018
Apple: Privacy is a fundamental right – September 27, 2017
Not sensing a negative impact on themselves (from Facebook/Google data mining) most, if not all, Android users won’t change their surfing/social media habits one bit.
Even when it’s been spelt out in words of one syllable, most people don’t understand why FaceBook’s mining of so much of all your personal data is a dodgy thing, neither do most people realise that Apple’s respect for your privacy is very important.
So long as FaceBook remains free of charge for users, most of those users will neither realise nor care that their personal data is being sold to FaceBook’s customers, who are prepared to pay massive amounts of money for that data.
There seems to be a noticeable difference either side of the Atlantic about this matter. While most Americans seem relatively sanguine about collection of personal data and targeted advertising, in Europe it’s regarded with much more suspicion and there is an increasing movement calling for companies like FaceBook to be effectively regulated as self-regulation has proved to be hopelessly inadequate.
Zuckerberg is doing himself no favours by refusing to give evidence personally before the British Parliament in the light of the recent revelations concerning Cambridge Analytics and their use of FaceBook data to influence political opinion in exchange for money. What is already being seen as an uncaring and arrogant company is showing itself to be exactly that.