[HN Gopher] Apple benefits its own ads in the name of privacy
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Apple benefits its own ads in the name of privacy
Author : AlexanderTheGr8
Score : 71 points
Date : 2021-10-17 15:09 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| webmobdev wrote:
| Apple is now apparently confident of its market position (and
| lack of competitors) today to believe that it can now sell _"
| privacy as a service"_. This is actually bad news for its users
| for the following reason:
|
| 1. _It 's deceptive_ - by packaging privacy as a "service", Apple
| is trying to sell the idea that user data collection is ok again
| as long as it is done by Apple.
|
| 2. _It takes away user 's choice_ - Apple is now clearly telling
| you that if you use their platform you have to allow data mining
| by Apple. But Apple will be kind enough to show an icon informing
| you of the same, as a "privacy" feature. /s
| moonchrome wrote:
| Is this really surprising. Apple consistently makes
| anticompetitive moves and sells them as benefits for the
| consumer.
| threatofrain wrote:
| I mean, imagine Apple making iOS users less opaque to
| advertisers so that consumers can finally get what they want --
| more footing for FB and Google to deliver relevant, exciting
| ads, just when you need them.
| moonchrome wrote:
| But it's not really about privacy - that's just a useful
| narrative that they will happily give up when it suits them -
| as they demonstrated recently with CSS.
|
| Just like the idiotic arguments about app store rules being
| there to ensure quality, etc.
|
| Apple is really good at putting a spin on these kinds of
| moves, taking anything they claim face value is extremely
| naive.
| threatofrain wrote:
| The article in question is about how iOS opacity is causing
| problems for marketplace fairness for ads. I'm taking the
| arguments made in this article in good faith.
|
| Apple ought only be allowed to reduce iOS data exposure if
| they also take steps to assure the market that they are not
| gaining undue advantage over their competitors. Apple
| customers should be aghast at the blatant move to harm
| legitimate companies such as Facebook and Google. With iOS
| data opacity, as opposed to data transparency, we have a
| less competitive marketplace.
| birdyrooster wrote:
| It's called the 7 Powers of Business Strategy. Counter-
| positioning and cornered resources synergize really well.
| InTheArena wrote:
| I;m trying to figure out why this is being spun this way. For
| years we have made the argument that services can be personalized
| without dangerous and crappy data privacy behaviors. Apple
| appears to be doing so. As long as they live with the
| restrictions that they force on others, its proof that companies
| don't need to buy and sell and compromise their customers to
| deliver a good product.
| gigel82 wrote:
| They do not live with the same restrictions though:
| https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/08/07/apple-a...
| Someone wrote:
| I think it's a bit more nuanced. As far as I know Google,
| Facebook, Amazon, etc. can still use whatever data they have
| on their logged-in users to target ads.
|
| Apple argues that's what they do, too. I haven't delved deep
| into that, but think that, technically, they're right.
|
| Now question is whether Apple's "whatever data they have on
| their logged-in users" is on equal footing with what the
| other big players have. Many iOS users are permanently logged
| into Apple (?maybe not even when using a browser?). I guess
| many also are almost permanently logged into Facebook or
| Google.
| ActorNightly wrote:
| I don't understand this argument.
|
| Its ok to trust your data to an advertising company because it
| just happens to sell a hardware device, but its not ok to trust
| your data to advertising company if they don't sell hardware
| devices?
| alphabetting wrote:
| Why do you think they're living with the restrictions they put
| on others? All signs seem to be pointing to them doing the
| opposite.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| I can turn off Apple's ad tracking in a way that's nontrivial
| for every other ad platform.
| chuckee wrote:
| Can someone explain which information Apple is using to target
| ads?
|
| And that's a great trick - calling it "privacy" without reducing
| your own data collection/telemetry/spying, only your competitors.
| If I want privacy, Apple is included in the companies I want to
| stay private from!
| jsnell wrote:
| Yes, Apple explains it in their privacy policy:
| https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-advertisin...
|
| So geo-targeting, and targeting via fine-grained (5k people in
| the same segment) advertising profiles built from data such as
| your age, name, address, gender, what other apps you've
| installed, what content you've consumed in Apple products, etc.
| ksec wrote:
| The tweet [1] from April and blog post [2] from May. And
| everyone has a different definition of privacy. Which leads to
| [3].
|
| But few have been asking these question since mid 2020 when
| Apple started a war against Data Collection. No one seems to
| care much.
|
| [1]
| https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1387130787510751239...
|
| [2] https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2021/5/13/apples-
| ads...
|
| [3] https://www.ben-
| evans.com/benedictevans/2021/8/27/understand...
| helen___keller wrote:
| Dumb question but what even is "apple search"? Is that searches
| in the App Store or is there more to it?
| asadlionpk wrote:
| Unless the ads use PII for targeting, why is this an issue?
|
| I imagine these ads to just be keyword-based.
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