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Comment by bhayden | Hacker News Reader

Instead of condescension, please provide some sources and state your beliefs in a productive way.

I think that was more or less the point of the GP minus the condescension bit. Making unqualified statements about what you believe about a large corporation is roughly on par with contesting that particular belief.

Then again Apple has a track record and APIs to put forward. Just about every API in iOS puts privacy first. If you want e.g. location data, the API asks the user's permission -- including with Apple's own apps.

How do I install any API from apple without providing Apple (and whoever else) with my credit card?

The OsX machine at my office is mystifying, am I supposed to provide my personal credit card to apple to get security updates? That is more secure and insures more of my privacy than not entering my credit card into a system I don't trust?

I view Apple as insulting my intelligence with promises of "convenience" that amount to being able to give them money on impulse.

Apple accounts are free. You can't use iTunes with a free account or get the premium developer offerings (i.e. iOS developer certs) but you don't need to pay to use the OS or get updates.

You seem to be under the impression that you can create one of those "free accounts" without apple tracking those activities. Privacy is not having anybody be able to log your activity, not "everybody but one company I like".

Apple's walled garden approach to everything makes apple one of the worst offenders with regards to not just privacy, but freedom as well.

That's a great area to discuss but not relevant to what we were talking about. The point I was referring to was the specific claim that you needed to give Apple a credit card to use OS X.

I'm not looking for free as in beer, I am looking to not share data that conveniently uniquely identifies the private me to random foreign 3rd parties like Apple just to do my job. Buying media via cash+reimburse or through company ordering is not my money and is often the solution for using commercial OSes with personal privacy outside my employer remaining similar to the unbanked. (But I can't tell if that is a waste of time with Apple, since I obviously need follow whatever procedures for security updates until the next purchasable media.)

From other comments, it sounds like I can dance around to make it possible on OsX, but every other OS (except ebooks?) that I have ever installed either makes opt out a transparent (though smaller button/font) process or has no registration process at all.

I don't like that the machine will be in a very small group of opt-out OsX systems compared to reasonable percentages of other Oses. By not sharing my personal details, I might be risking my coworkers having lower than normal privacy when using OsX machines.

"Create an iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store account without a credit card or other payment method" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204034

Which leads to: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203905 " If you're using the iTunes Store or App Store for the first time If you're using the store for the first time with an existing Apple ID, you must provide a payment method. After you create the account, you can change your payment information to None."

I've always end up back in UX loops wanting my credit card since I seem to need a new version that is free but in the app store to get security updates..

You don't need to use the App Store to get security updates.

They have been always been available for download from the Apple site:

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201222

Its a weird secret option, but here's how you do it (I used to work for them.)

Make an account - does not require payment option

Buy a FREE app in the store

None will be a payment option as one of the possible credit cards (as you dont have to pay for a free thing)

That's no different from every other major mobile platform. The other ones do one better and build their own apps entirely using the same APIs that third parties have access to, which is why Firefox exists on those other platforms.

iOS permissions give users far more control than Android. Internet Advertising now an unrvokable permission on android.

You must be confused. There is no "Internet Advertising" permission on any mobile platform.

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