“Along with new iPhones and a promised smartwatch, Apple Inc. is selling something else these days: privacy,” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“In increasingly blunt and pointed remarks, Chief Executive Tim Cook says Apple handles user information differently than rivals like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. which employ the data to sell targeted advertising,” Wakabayashi reports. “‘We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers,’ Mr. Cook wrote in a letter posted on Apple’s website last week. ‘We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you.'”
“Apple says its [iAd] system is less intrusive because it gives users more control over the use of their data and lets them opt out. It also doesn’t target advertising based on users’ locations as they move with their devices. As Apple moves into more-sensitive areas, it says it won’t have access to—and therefore cannot make money from—data from its new Apple Pay mobile-payment service and HealthKit for storing medical and fitness information,” Wakabayashi reports. “Google and Facebook declined to comment on Mr. Cook’s comments.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple begins encrypting iCloud email sent between providers – July 15, 2014
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
Apple’s iMessage encryption trips up U.S. feds’ surveillance – April 4, 2013
Particularly like Tim Cook mentioning that free-services providers see people as products, that Apple see customers as customers.
For now, Apple is sniping at the competitors and taking some modest steps about it.
Apple has not gone privacy pro and cut the cord. I am looking forward to the day when that happens.
Also, memo to Apple. Fix the Photo iCloud and other issues.
What is wrong with Photo iCloud, and what other issues need fixing?
Also, exactly what is Photo iCloud? I searched for it but all I could find was “iCloud photo sharing” and “PhotoStream”.
Something privacy-related that I noticed with iOS 8 – if you have rebooted your phone but not yet entered your passcode, any text messages or phone calls you receive will be identified by the phone number only and not the person’s name. Privacy and security to the extreme!
Anyone remembers the page rank algorithm?
That was intended to return quality results from your search query?
If that is still in place it has turned into a targeted ad machine and biased filter, along with the tracking and personal data scalping scripts.
Google do know evil!