According to a survey commissioned by cryptographic solutions vendor nCipher, 89% of respondents agreed that encryption is important. No great surprise there then. To get to the surprising statistics, you have to dig deeper into the results: when it comes to data encryption, Apple is not trusted as much as Google. Or Amazon as far as those in the U.S. are concerned.
Say what? Is this the same Google that recently confirmed that its camera app was vulnerable to remote attacker takeover to spy on the user? The same Google that recently confirmed a critical vulnerability that could lead to permanent denial of service for Android users? Yep, but remember that this survey wasn’t asking about trust in the broader security sense; it was more narrowly focused on encrypting data…
Data privacy needs to be higher on the technical agenda everywhere, and those companies under the brightest of media spotlights need to be better at getting the “we take the security of your data seriously” message across.
MacDailyNews Take: Based on this survey result, the ramifications of widespread pot legalization across the U.S. are now readily apparent.
While being right nearly all the time is a heavy cross to bear, we gladly carry this burden for you, as always:
Apple should be running a massive ad campaign that clearly explains how they stand apart from virtually every other major Silicon Valley company when it come to privacy and monetizing users. Every time there is a breach or an abuse at Facebook, Google, etc. Apple should be ready to pound their privacy message into the general public’s exceedingly thick collective skull. — MacDailyNews, April 10, 2018
Apple needs to continue to relentlessly point out how FaceBook and Google make their money: By vacuuming up your personal data and selling it to the highest bidder. – MacDailyNews, June 5, 2017
It’s not at all apparent that the general public values their privacy enough or even knows that Apple’s privacy is paramount, but the average Joe/Jane does seem to regard Siri as not too bright, putting into question whether Apple’s commitment to privacy will every really pay off; i.e. translate to increased product sales.
Apple product users seem to value their privacy. Non-Apple product users, by definition, do not value their privacy (or they’d be Apple product users).
So, what’s the inflection point? Do Google and the others need to have an Equifax event befall it for their product users to wake up? Would they even wake up if Google etc. did have a cataclysmic breach? We have our doubts. — MacDailyNews, October 5, 2017
Until we see everyday people wake up about privacy, we’ll continue to believe that Apple is serving a niche market of those relative few who recognize the need for and desire the type of stringent privacy protections that Apple offers (outside of China). — MacDailyNews, March 21, 2018
It’s amazing that privacy champion Apple continually gets lumped in with the likes of privacy-trampling Google and Facebook. It’s also illustrative of Apple’s failure to get their privacy message out to the great unwashed. MacDailyNews, December 17, 2019
Remember that the FBI and law enforcement ran that FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone encryption. Of course, that meant that Apple’s security is better, but people don’t actually pay attention to the details, they just remember that Apple is the bad guy when it comes to security.
Not to out of it at all. They see the company he keeps, trump, and if that guy, trump, knew the truth or told it, he would have a heart attack and a stroke. So, they have more smarts then you give them credit for apparently.
From The Urban Dictionary https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Joe%20Sixpack
Joe Sixpack
Average American moron, IQ 60, drinking beer, watching baseball and CNN, and believe everything his President says.
I know, huh? And they don’t smoke pot. The MDN take is insulting to Americans.
I am none of those things, and I trust none of them. The one I trust least is the one that has to “distort reality” and insult my intelligence with their BS.
MDN, only two sexes? What about Joe who feels like a Jane? Have you forgotten Jane who feels like a Joe? And all the many feelings in between…
I get what you are saying, but this is not just Joe Sixpack. This is almost every variety of human being in technologically advanced western nations.
I honestly sat down with several 20 somethings and 30 somethings to talk about IT requirements for lunch. Security of course came up and I brought up privacy. Quick observations, of the 5 people I was talking to, only 1 had heard of Orwell’s 1984, none could explain why privacy is important, most felt it would be better if the government had backdoors for catching criminals, none felt the government was a danger, only corporations. This is an IT staff.
The average American IQ Is between 90 and 100.
9/11. Freedom Fries!
And 90% of Americans think they are above average
The Dunning-Kruger Effect.
theloniousmac, actually the average is 100 with 15 points per sigma each way, i.e., 68.27% of the population has an IQ between 85 and 115, and 95.45% of the population has an IQ between 70 and 130 with 99.73% of the population having an IQ between 55 and 145. That’s the theory anyway.
And, just for the record, IQ does not map directly to “smarts”. It is a combination of knowledge and “smarts”. Theoretically, someone with a perfect memory like in all those fictional stories, but with very poor mental processing skills, would still score rather highly on virtually a IQ tests.
With regard to the young adults with whom you spoke, I hope you stressed that if the U.S. Government (or actually any government within the U.S.) gets “golden keys” or backdoor access built in that other countries around the world will demand access to that same functionality. Do we want virtually every country around the world to have unfettered access to every email, every text, every file we send or create?
In theory, in the best of all cases (not reality, but let’s go with it here) the U.S. Courts would properly control when U.S. Governments (federal, state, local) could get access to those golden keys or backdoors. This is obviously not true for many, many countries around the world.
Does the U.S. Government want a situation where Apple design teams disbursed around the world are sharing early stage, proprietary designs via encrypted emails and encrypted documents, but then because the Chinese government has demanded those same golden keys and backdoors that a company that is majority owned by the Chinese government and a direct competitor to Apple gets direct access to those now decrypted, confidential files?
Just think of patents. The new public disclosure rules eliminate the one year safe period. Think of the previous scenario where the Chinese competitor gets that confidential information and either publishes so that no one, not even Apple can patent it, or since both China and the U.S. are “first to file” countries that the Chinese competitor files for a patent in China and the PCT — effectively barring Apple from implementing the technology that it rightfully invented.
“Apple should be running a massive ad campaign that clearly explains how they stand apart from virtually every other major Silicon Valley company when it come to privacy and monetizing users.”
This is a timely comment. Take a look at this
https://9to5mac.com/2019/12/19/2019-apple-platform-security-guide-shows-what-it-is-doing-to-push-the-boundaries-of-security-and-privacy/
Stockholm syndrome.
One of Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion is Consistency. Once you have made a choice you start finding ways to support your decision. Lots of people use google maps, gmail or docs, so they find ways to ignore the downsides.
If you trust any of them including Apple your full of Kool Aid.
If you trust any of them, including Steve B, your knowledge of grammar and spelling will be your undoing. Steve B, you’re going to pay!
Trust in God
which one?
All of them
“Exactly how out of it do Joe and Jane Sixpack have to be to trust Google more than Apple with personal data?”
The same kind of out-of-it that they have to be to blindly support the current constitutional threat and all-around buffoon occupying the White House.
Still your President today – and four years from today. Enjoy!
Those Dims hating on him today – they were dining with him, drinking with him, schmoozing with him, and begging his favor, at every opportunity, before he ran against them.
Regarding the first lines of MDN take: hahahahaha ROTF! Thank you. 🙂