I do it for the privacy. Google auctions user data to third parties for micro dollars on their ad exchange.
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en...
Apple has no such business.
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en...
Apple has no such business.
I suggest you have a closer look at the MicroG website where this is explained, too: https://microg.org/
When tracked through apps, Google is equally open. Apple tries its best to combat tracking, but most apps will still do their best to jump through the tracking contention measures.
https://9to5mac.com/2019/02/07/app-screen-record-apps-remove...
I'd say, always be vigilant of the apps you install. I often check my http request logs to see my phone activity.
The problema Is if you stick with Apple hardware there is no OS alternative
you're stuck with what the dictator (benevolent or not) decides
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/apples-siri-listens-users-inti...
[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/improving-siris-priva...
The third parties know how to tie your cookie to your other information through identity graphs.
It is possible that the US government has some snooping contract with iCloud, but they are definitely not the party I am trying to protect myself from. I am trying to protect myself from businesses using my data to influence my politics, lifestyle and purchases. Look into the business of companies like Liveramp, to see the kind of data exchanges that Google helps proliferate.
https://www.iab.com/guidelines/real-time-bidding-rtb-project...
Full disclosure: I work for one of these third parties. Safari/Firefox are the hardest browsers to track. Google extended the deadline for killing cookies which probably netted us another year worth of easy revenue before we have to start start relying on first party tracking.
To participate in the auction you don't need to win or even bid; you pay an upfront cost for listening, buy a seat in the ad exchange. The whole thing is dressed as an ad-exchange, but it really is a data exchange. If you win the auction you get to serve your own pixel to tag the user, corroborate the data from the auction, etc.
There is a lot of value in winning and ad impression beyond the ad impression itself, but just by listening you can build advanced models of people's browsing patterns, and if you want tie the data with the information from another identity graph, you only need to win one identifier once and serve both pixels, your party's and the third party (cross cookie syncing). This third party identity sync historically happens at the client level, the browser in this case. However, in the future it will happen at the backend level, first party.
PS: Google is not the only exchange btw. There is APPNEXUS, Rubicon, PubMatic, etc.
That's not a scenario specific to real time bidding though. You could also just buy a regular ad and do that.
> if you want tie the data with the information from another identity graph, you only need to win one identifier once and serve both pixels, your party's and the third party (cross cookie syncing).
How can you associate the data from bids you didn't win to the data you get from ads that you did win and serve? Even with cookie syncing that doesn't necessarily reveal when a past/future bid opportunity matches a user you already know (unless you bid on it and win)
With a regular ads (ad words), you don't get to target based on cookie, geo, or other identifying characteristics in real time. Through programmatic ad exchanges you can do it in real time since every auction contains all the information to perform the targeting and enhance your models; the cookie, the url where the ad was going to be displayed, the browser characteristics, etc (read RTB for that).
> How can you associate the data from bids you didn't win to the data you get from ads that you did win and serve? Even with cookie syncing that doesn't necessarily reveal when a past/future bid opportunity matches a user you already know (unless you bid on it and win)
Associating between auctions and wins is simple, they share the same id. You listen to a different stream for bid result notifications. Moreover, your own embedded pixel will give you the information upon impression.
The key here is that the auction, what you get by just listening, comes already with all the information; if you listen enough, you can build the full browsing history of the cookies you track. Using this information you can build models to predict where these specific cookies will go next, and show them ads or alter the publisher context they are exposed to in order to route them where you want to route them. B2C marketing and political propaganda services are all about that.
- it's bad for app developers with 30% cut
- and bad for users as every app becomes +30% more expensive (like Hey app)
- good for apple.
in apple app ecosystem you're the product as the user.
It's estimated Apple did about $50 billion in App Store revenue in 2019, and $30 billion for Google Play store.
Now consider that about 80% of Apple's revenue actually comes from hardware, not software or people's data.
But 70% of Google's revenue comes from ads. It's insane to me that you think that in Apple's ecosystem you're the product. The product in Apple's ecosystem is their hardware and they charge for access to users.
Google does exactly the same thing, except without the regard for your privacy. Google's entire business model is selling access to its users.
In fact, forget about Android, every OS pretty much ever has allowed for changing default apps. This is strictly about control, and this current move is strictly about throwing EU regulators a slight curve ball.