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Comment by joejerryronnie | Hacker News Reader

Both companies are being hypocritical. FB is of course trying to spin their image to be the “champion of small business”, when the only thing they care about is ad revenue. And the only reason Apple is so pro-user privacy is because their business model doesn’t depend on user data, i.e. they don’t have skin in the game.

If FB was smart, they would attack Apple as supporting the death of middle-class America by outsourcing their labor to overseas sweat shops and being in bed with the CCP.

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Software companies do not have moral high ground to attack hardware companies for labor practices because software companies benefit from cheap and plentiful hardware. If Facebook was only able to be accessed by hardware produced by fair labor practices then they would not have a social network worth talking about. In addition, I doubt Facebook’s Portal and Oculus series of hardware have significantly better labor practices than Apple.

I’m pointing out that neither company here has the moral high ground. If you’re bashing FB but defending Apple, then you too, are being hypocritical.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to defend Apple for this particular stance without having to marry them.

But Apple could easily decide to monetize user privacy a-la Facebook. They just haven’t. It’s sitting out there whenever they want it, billions in revenue. That’s different than not having skin in the game, because they could easily get that without changing their business model. Just requires flipping a switch.

I think they have chosen to protect user privacy even though it cost them an easy opportunity that is pretty significant, even at Apple revenue levels. Maybe because they feel that will make more people buy their products, fine with me.

how is the Google search deal not exactly that?

Yes, something FB has no skin in the game regarding.

Of course, how many of their customers use Apple hardware?

Exactly, FB should use the same tactic as Apple here, not try to make themselves look better (which is an impossible task at the moment).

Although, I think every single companies devices are made in China? Not sure how that targets Apple.

Also Apples management hates the idea of fb spying on them. Just like everyone else but even more so.

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