Apple stands up for privacy, but does it even matter?

“The ongoing tension between Apple and Facebook flared again this week, causing a dramatic hubbub in the tech industry. I’d argue it was a nothing burger,” Kara Swisher writes for The New York Times. “Not because it was unimportant, but because it’s clear that despite persistent evidence that our privacy is being violated, it might not matter.”
“Wat Facebook did is the equivalent of sneaking out of the house after the curfew your parents imposed after you last sneaked out of the house. To put it more plainly, it was obnoxious and squirrelly and just the kind of behavior that we all now assume the company is capable of. Which is to say, we don’t trust Facebook in any way when it comes to using and protecting the data we entrust to it,” Swisher writes. “And neither does Apple and its chief executive, Tim Cook.”
“Mr. Cook has long been vocal about distinguishing Apple from Facebook when it comes to user data and the importance of protecting privacy,” Swisher writes. “The bigger problem is that such an important issue might turn out to be the real nothing burger. Facebook turned in another stellar quarter this week, which made its stock rise strongly. So despite all the sketchy things the company is accused of doing by Apple and many others, most investors and analysts don’t seem to care, and they will never care, as long as its digital advertising business — goosed by its astonishing and nakedly ambitious ability to suck in data, data and more data from all of us — continues to impress.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: About user privacy, most investors and analysts don’t seem to care, nor do, sadly, billions of consumers.
Despite a litany of privacy lapses and abuses, Facebook had 2.32 billion monthly active users as of Dec. 31, 2018, up 9% year-over-year, and 1.52 billion daily active users, also up 9%.
Apple CEO Tim Cook might be futilely trying to sell something that nobody’s buying.
We’re interested to see if Apple can really capitalize on their commitment to privacy or if it’ll take a major breach to wake up the majority of people or if even that would be enough to make privacy a real selling point. Given how many gullible and/or ignorant people are willing to hand over their personal data for free to the likes of Google and Facebook (while mailing their DNA to other companies, no less), we’re not seeing Apple’s devotion to privacy as very salable. — MacDailyNews, March 19, 2018
Hopefully, someday, many, many more people will care about their own privacy instead of pissing it away in exchange for nothing. — MacDailyNews, October 4, 2018