“When my friends come to me asking which smartphone or laptop they should buy, I almost always recommend an Apple product – the latest iPhone or MacBook,” Michael Grothaus writes for Fast Company. “I recommend these products not just because they are Apple’s best, but because as someone who covers technology for a living, I believe that for most people, Apple offers better products and solutions than its competitors.”
“Yes, Apple’s products are more expensive than many, ‘but you get what you pay for,’ I frequently explain,” Grothaus writes. “In the case of iPhones, they generally have the fastest smartphone processors on the market, sport arguably the best industrial design, and have the most refined and stable operating system. I attribute similar qualities to Apple’s MacBooks, although my recommendation for those also include the line, ‘you’ll pay a little more up front, but they’ll last you twice as long as a PC laptop.'”
“I now believe the best product Apple offers is intangible, yet far more valuable than a flagship smartphone,” Grothaus writes. “The best product Apple has – and the single biggest reason that consumers should choose an Apple device over competing devices – is privacy.”
“When you pay that extra money for an Apple product, you’re not just buying better industrial design or more advanced underlying tech – you’re buying the right to keep more information about yourself to yourself,” Grothaus writes. “In an age when data breaches are the norm, data manipulation is a business model, and corporate surveillance of your life is at an all-time high–what better product is there than privacy?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Has this trickled down enough to the great unwashed yet to turn them from privacy-trampling Android phones toward real Apple iPhones or will it take further major breaches and revelations?
SEE ALSO:
Apple, other tech firms to testify before U.S. Senate on data privacy September 26th – September 12, 2018
Google hit with lawsuit accusing them of tracking phone users regardless of privacy settings – August 20, 2018
Google tracks users movements even when explicitly told not to – Associated Press – August 13, 2018
New Android malware records ambient audio, fires off premium-rate texts, and harvests files, photos, contacts, and more – March 2, 2018
How Google is secretly recording Android settlers, monitoring millions of conversations every day and storing the creepy audio files – August 22, 2017
Android apps secretly tracking users by listening to inaudible sound hidden in ads – May 8, 2017
Edward Snowden: No matter what, do not use Google’s new Allo messenger app – September 23, 2016
Apple’s iOS 11 will deliver even more privacy to users – June 8, 2017
Google to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple’s privacy settings to collect user data – August 31, 2016
Apple takes a swing at privacy-tampling, personal data-guzzling rivals like Google – September 29, 2015
Apple reinvents the privacy policy – September 29, 2015
Apple: Hey Siri and Live Photos data stays only on your device to ensure privacy – September 12, 2015
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 2015
Edward Snowden supports Apple’s stance on customer privacy – June 17, 2015
Mossberg: Apple’s latest product is privacy – June 12, 2015
Apple looks to be building an alternative to the Google-branded, hand-over-your-privacy ‘Internet Experience’ – June 11, 2015
Understanding Apple and privacy – June 8, 2015
Edward Snowden: Apple is a privacy pioneer – June 5, 2015
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple slams Google in Safari 7.1 release notes: ‘Adds DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn’t track users’ – September 18, 2014
A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Google to pay $17 million to settle U.S. states’ Safari user tracking probe – November 20, 2013
Judge dismisses case against Google over Safari user tracking – October 11, 2013
UK Apple Safari users sue Google for secretly tracking Web browsing – January 28, 2013
Google pays $22.5 million to settle charges of bypassing Apple Safari privacy settings – August 9, 2012
US FTC votes to fine Google $22.5 million for bypassing Safari privacy settings; Settlement allows Google to admit no liability – July 31, 2012
Google’s D.C. lobbyists have outspent Apple nearly 10 to 1 so far this year – July 23, 2012
Google to pay $22.5 million to settle charges over bypassing privacy settings of millions of Apple users – July 10, 2012
Apple’s anti-user tracking policy has mobile advertisers scrambling – May 9, 2012
Google said to be negotiating amount of U.S. FTC fine over Apple Safari breach – May 4, 2012
Cookies and privacy, Google and Safari – February 25, 2012
Obama’s privacy plan puts pinch on Google – February 24, 2012
Obama administration outlines online privacy guidelines – February 23, 2012
Google sued by Apple Safari-user for bypassing browser privacy – February 21, 2012
Google responds to Microsoft over privacy issues, calls IE’s cookie policy ‘widely non-operational’ – February 21, 2012
Google’s tracking of Safari users could prompt FTC investigation – February 18, 2012
WSJ: Google tracked iPhone, iPad users, bypassing Apple’s Safari browser privacy settings; Microsoft denounces – February 17, 2012
I would have to agree. However much they may have lost their way in other areas, and they have IMO, this will keep me with them.
‘you’ll pay a little more up front, but they’ll last you twice as long as a PC laptop.’”
Except when the keyboard breaks.
It’s true Apple always says it’s concerned about privacy but the companies that don’t concern themselves about consumer privacy are Wall Street’s most favorite companies because they can turn personal data into gold. Both Google and Facebook are constantly being praised for their overt data-harvesting. There’s no regulation for those companies so they can use and abuse personal data any way they want and make a ton of money from it.
Apple is only hurting itself if even consumers don’t care about their own personal privacy. No consumers are boycotting Facebook or Google which are known for their data-harvesting, so what’s the big deal. Apple is constantly being criticized for not fully monetizing consumer data and law enforcement agencies are always cursing Apple for not unlocking suspect iPhones. I’m sure intelligence agencies feel the same way about Apple’s privacy stance. They hate it. Apple only becomes the biggest loser for trying to protect user privacy.
That’s Apple’s choice but hardly anything to boast about as Android devices continue to hold over 85% market share percentage with all the data-harvesting it can handle. That market share is still growing because consumers don’t care anything about their personal privacy and would rather have free services.
Unfortunately, Apple sets the user up to have their data harvested by non-Apple apps in the iOS App Store. Most people think, logically so, that Apple has vetted every app in the App Store. They have. However, it does not mean they are safe. Many, maybe most, of them mine user data like crazy. Apple hides behind this fact by saying they allow their users to make their own choices. Indeed, and users will have to grant these apps access. The problem is that most users have no ability to understand the privacy policies, nor should they have to a separate one for every app they choose to download.
I view privacy more as a service than a product. If and when Apple invents a device that cannot be accessed other than by the user, then I might change my mind.
Either way it’s good that someone views privacy as something valuable.