Hacker News Reader

Agreed, but this is also classic business strategy (think Sun Tzu's Art of War--Attack where your enemy is weak).

Specifically, Google and Apple are competitors in the mobile space. Apple is creating a product differentiator by including strong privacy controls. Google as an advertising company risks its revenue base if it were to include string privacy controls. So, it's smart business by Apple to compete in an area where their competitor cannot.

A good lesson for startups to reflect on.

Right, I agree. I honestly don't know the track record of Apple and user privacy rights and I am probably in the unsavvy and don't understand category. But just casually compared to the wild-wild-west of the Android platform, I am very happy to continue to support the Apple ecosystem; even if this means I have a bit of the vendor lock-in that goes with it.

This type of stance alone is worth the extra cost of an iPhone or Mac over their less expensive competition (at least to me). I can buy Apple products with confidence.