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Comment by p49k | Hacker News Reader

The privacy changes Apple made were the right thing to do regardless; it’s a question of users having control over what apps are doing with their data.

The two things should be treated as separate issues (the latter perhaps should be a topic of upcoming antitrust talks)

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If they’re anticompetitive, as you seem to allow, then they should definitely not be treated separately. If Apple is purposefully undermining their competitors to build their own business they should be held to account. Charge the companies and charge the individuals. The threat of jail time will force the decision makers to consider their decisions.

Giving privacy to users is the ethically correct decision. It doesn’t even conflict with the act of ramping up their own ad business (which ostensibly respects the same rules they are applying for Facebook). The antitrust issue would be related to questions around the exclusivity of the App Store and how they benefit from that (including through advertising).

If they’re using their monopoly power to disadvantage a competitor while leveraging that disadvantage to compete against Facebook, it is definitely anticompetitive and could get them sued by the government and Facebook. It does conflict with them ramping up their own ad business if it’s anticompetitive.

Giving users privacy is indeed a good thing, but Apple is not an ethical company so I’m not sure why they should get the benefit of the doubt. Without inside information into the reasoning, it is wrong to assume they are doing this for peoples privacy. They could just as easily be doing it for selfish reasons.

clearly this was Apple's intention from the start. We cannot applaud them for incidentally benefitting users if that wasn't their intention.

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