“Every thing you search for on the Internet, every email you send, and every photo you take is scanned and mined for information by some faceless entity, and it’s not the NSA — it’s Google,” Malarie Gokey writes for Digital Trends. “All these… free services come at a very high price: our personal data and privacy. Google isn’t just scanning our searches, emails, and photos to make its services smarter, it’s also doing it to sell better ads and make more money. Little by little, we’ve sold our data to a huge corporation.”
“Apple CEO Tim Cook laid down the gauntlet during the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC) Champions of Freedom event in Washington. He took a bold stance in favor of encryption and everyone’s right to privacy on the Internet, declaring it a ‘fundamental right,'” Gokey writes. “Although Cook has made earlier statements in the same vein, this time he elevated his rhetoric to denounce other companies (ahem, Google and Facebook) which offer free services in exchange for gobs of lovely user data.”
“He went on to say that Apple’s business is based on selling high-quality products for a clear, monetary value — no strings attached,” Gokey writes. “‘We shouldn’t ask our customers to make a tradeoff between privacy and security. We need to offer them the best of both,’ Cook concluded. ‘Ultimately, protecting someone else’s data protects all of us.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cook is right, obviously, but Apple is left with one problem: They need to make their Photos as good as or, preferably, better than Google’s Photos which does some interesting things with photos for “free” (not really free; in exchange for your privacy) that Apple does not offer (automatic collages, stories, animations) at any price.
Right now, Apple’s photo service is second-best in terms of certain features, but it costs more. That’s not a winning combination, regardless of how many sanctimonious speeches one gives.
SEE ALSO:
Dvorak: Google Photos is too creepy – June 3, 2015
Tim Cook attacks Google, U.S. federal government over right to privacy abuses – June 3, 2015
The price you’ll pay for Google’s ‘free’ photo storage – June 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook champions privacy, blasts ‘so-called free services’ – June 3, 2015
Passing on Google Photos for iOS: Read the fine print before you sign up for Google’s new Photos service – June 1, 2015
Why Apple’s Photos beats Google Photos, despite price and shortcomings – May 30, 2015
Is Apple is losing the photo wars? – May 29, 2015
How Google aims to delve deeper into users’ lives – May 29, 2015
Apple CEO Cook: Unlike some other companies, Apple won’t invade your right to privacy – March 2, 2015
Survey: People trust U.S. NSA more than Google – October 29, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
U.S. NSA watching, tracking phone users with Google Maps – January 28, 2014
U.S. NSA secretly infiltrated Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say – October 30, 2013
Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
Court rules NSA doesn’t have to reveal its semi-secret relationship with Google – May 22, 2013
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014