"Don't violate your privacy" --- what?
As compared to...who, exactly? They have an ad network, and they have a cloud product - by definition they're holding onto as much of your data as any other company in those businesses.
As compared to...who, exactly? They have an ad network, and they have a cloud product - by definition they're holding onto as much of your data as any other company in those businesses.
The privacy implications of their respective offerings are quite different. Gmail actively scans your email looking for keywords, while iCloud is not ad-supported and does not read your email. AdWords makes your web searches follow you on the sites that you visit; iAd does not allow your Internet activities to affect the ads that are displayed. Google's servers log what I searched for, and Apple's do not. Etc.
http://www.macrumors.com/2014/02/18/apple-iad-stingy/
"Apple's unwillingness to share large amounts of consumer data is hurting its iAd business, according to Madison Avenue media buyers that spoke with AdAge. The company is said to be "downright stingy" with the information it shares, too slow at developing ad products, and "too reticent to foster relationships." "
For all the promises of "only seeing ads for things you're interested in", data-mining based advertising has been a colossal flop from my perspective as a consumer. We've surrendered a tremendous amount of personal information and gotten hamfisted targeting attempts and obnoxious "viral" campaigns in exchange. It makes me nostalgic for the stupid but well executed beer commercials of the 1980s. Not giving away all your personal information is not the same as not being good at advertising.
Because almost all of Google's products are server based, they gather far more information about your behavior than Apple. Where is Apple's equivalent of Google Analytics, Adsense, and Search History, tracking you all over the web?
Also, when it comes to personal data such as email, Google openly reads your data to support selling your attention to the Advertisers who pay the most to influence you.
Apple doesn't examine your data to support the interests of third parties.
While this would represent just a fraction of Apple's overall profits, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
The Apple fan club on HN is strong and tolerates no dissent.
This is also technically correct: let’s assume Apple made $500M in iAd revenue in 2013 (his upper bound); they made about $150B in revenue in the same year, which makes iAd 0.3% of the revenue. That is clearly what’s driving the business.
> Apple makes money from you buying their products, not from selling ads. They therefore want to respect your privacy, compared to, say, Google.
was poorly worded. More precisely, TazeTSchnitzel used “makes money from” instead of “exists thanks to” or some more appropriate phrase. The response
> Apple made $125 million from their ad network iAd in 2012.
replies to that wording error, ignoring the bigger argument. This could've been an honest mistake—the parent did use figure of speech instead of precise term, after all—or an intentional use of fallacy.
Then the thread spirals into discussing whether TazeTSchnitzel or JohnTHaller is correct (both are and both aren't), and now ends up with HN meta-discussion.
He isn't technically correct. The GP provided a factually correct statement.
> That is clearly what’s driving the business.
By no interpretation is that statement even technically correct.
Huh? Who are you comparing Apple against? It sounds like Google/Facebook/Twitter but they are advertising honey-pots rather than product companies.
The more accurate competitor category includes Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, Sony, HTC etc. Like Apple, their first business is to sell product... but they will sell adverts too if they can.
If you genuinely think they give a tiny shit about your privacy you're incredibly gullible.
Literally every other company selling you hardware?
>by definition they're holding onto as much of your data as any other company in those businesses.
Retaining information and letting others see that information (privacy) are not mutually exclusive. Swiss banks store all sorts of private information, but are known for protecting their customer's information and privacy. Implying that Apple storing that information is the same as them letting someone who isn't you see it is dishonest and wrong.