Comment by zettajon@lemmy.ml on Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.

Nope, Apple sells your data just as much as Google does: https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/apple-ad-revenues-skyrocket-amid-its-privacy-changes https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/22/23513061/apple-iphone-app-store-ads-privacy-antitrust#luMMel

While people noticed their new policies against 3rd party apps, that masked the fact that those policies carved out an exception for first party apps, meaning they collect (anonymous) data on you through Health, Journal, Music, etc. just like every other company. “Trusting them more” is simply a result of you and everyone else getting hit with their privacy ads recently.

Edit: “just like every other company” meant Google and Microsoft, i.e. the other big equivalent tech companies, my fault for not being specific.

Anonymous data is actually pretty different to the data everyone else collects, which literally has your name and picture

Apple’s data is useful for trends but it can’t be used to study who I am.

This comment needs to be further up rather than the idiotic takes that don’t understand the difference between anonymized data collection (Apple) vs identifiable data collection (Meta/Google/most other tech).

Well, then there’s also the people that don’t realize that there are all sorts of programs out there that will try to take that “anonymized” data and then tie it right back to a persons profile.

For example, you can anonymize GPS location data, but just because you strip away identifying information doesn’t mean that you’re truly anonymous. It can still be obvious where you live and where you work. And once you figure out where they live (again based on anonymous data) you can tie that information right back into their profile and continue to track them as if nothing has changed. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a15927450/identify-individual-users-with-stravas-heatmap/

Not all anonymization techniques are created equal? I’m pretty sure this is fairly obvious at this point to anybody remotely familiar with how data collection works when it comes to privacy and device metrics.

So, how is this relevant to this conversation besides adding more FUD and misinformation?

You sound like you know a lot more than everyone else on this subject so I thank you for your responses as a means to educate others.

Just a word of advice, be sure to treat others with respect rather than assuming the worst of their intentions or calling them idiots because they don’t know as much as you.

My response is still relevant to the conversation as we are talking about “anonymized data”. The link in my comment above proves that just because you are told your data has been “anonymized” does not truly mean that it’s impossible to re-attribute it back to an individual.

So if you trust that Apple has great techniques for data anonymization, that’s awesome, feel free to expand on that and explain why. Just don’t go around telling others that simply having any sort of anonymization technique makes it so you don’t have to worry.

Thanks for the “advice”. Now, let me expand on my position.

The reason why I’m slightly annoyed but everyone’s take here is:

The demeanor that folks here have in passing on ill informed opinion as fact and then speculating details.
Not looking at the actual privacy policy of a company and the history of how said company has been involved in data collection, privacy, implementation of features in that realm and their handling of customer data.
Bringing up random points just to win an argument instead of conceding that they do not what they are talking about.

Here’s a few links to put things in perspective as to what and how Apple anonymizes data and how seriously it takes privacy:

https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Overview.pdf

https://www.apple.com/privacy/labels/

https://www.apple.com/privacy/control/

Read through those, look at Apple’s implementation of TouchID, FaceID and their stance on E2E encryption and tell me again why Apple isn’t serious about privacy, masking and anonymizing data, implementing differential privacy and informing users of what they collect and how users can opt-out of it.

Edit- Further evidence and reading:

https://www.techradar.com/news/fbi-says-apples-new-encryption-launch-is-deeply-concerning

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apple-data-collection/

https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/A_Day_in_the_Life_of_Your_Data.pdf

That won’t work on Apples data - they group all the data into cohorts, so the anonymising isn’t reversible.

Can you explain a bit more about Apple grouping their data into cohorts? I haven’t heard much about this before. For example, how would grouping data into cohorts work with GPS data?

Metadata is anonymous yet people still get fingerprinted by it.

I feel like wuth the amount of stuff done on device and not in the cloud with iPhones and other Apple products, saying that Apple sells just as much as Google is at the very least disingenuous…

Why? They gather data locally on your device rather than on a cloud service. Why do you feel the locality where they gather your data makes the comment disingenuous?

If your device locally analyzes your behavior and files, then Apple itself is not actually collecting and analyzing your data. The “locality” is a fundamental difference in who is doing what. If your private information never leaves your phone, your privacy is still fully maintained.

“Just as much as Google.” LMAO. We have an expert here.

As much as Google? Likely not. Does their carefully curated pro-privacy image actually match their practices? Also likely not.

Did you read the article you posted? Apple serve you ads, they don’t sell your data. And they allow you to opt out of tracking. It’s all right there in your article.

I know this is off topic, but Apple isn’t innocent.

It’s almost worse to think your privacy is protected when it’s not, than to know it’s not. At least I know Google is sending my Google Assistant sound clips to be analyzed. Sucks when you learn the person you thought you could trust is fucking behind your back.

While I’m all for calling out companies for abusing your privacy, your own links show that they don’t collect as much data as google. They could (and should) be better though.

Nope apple is literally worse than hitler, spez, and elon musk confirmed. Tim apple fucked my wife in front of me.

You lucky sonofabitch. You got to witness the ol Apple Pie with your own two eyes.

Wow, your wife must be really hot if a gay guy saw her and said ‘would’.

@khajimak @steal_your_face what did I just read??

Health is on-device, and is E2EE. To my knowledge, that’s always been the case. They do allow optional data linking services, but those need to be setup by the end-user. Apple should have no knowledge of this data, by default. Notes can be E2EE (with ADP), and with Journal (a new iOS feature) being E2EE. Music is a paid for service, with no ads, and is one of the more privacy respecting options. Data is needed for Music to help serve the user, and suggest artists/songs… it’s literally one of the platforms benefits, over self-hosting.

None of the major players literally sell your true name and address. All mask the data, and then do stuff with it like create trends to know which ads to display to “users that search for tiktok on the app store/play store”

Apple does not sell user data. By all means, look at their Privacy Policy (it’s easy to read), and show me where this is mentioned. They do collect it, and use it for their own marketing platform, but they don’t sell/trade it. In fact they DO anonymise the data they collect. Take a look: https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Overview.pdf This is just one document, found after a quick search. They also disclose other details on their security, and other privacy (or lack thereof) aspects.

Now show me where other ad agencies, not just one or two, that goes to the same lengths, while also giving decent documentation. I’m not saying Apple is perfect (far from it).

They do collect it, and use it for their own marketing platform

Right

but they don’t sell/trade it

Then what are they collecting it for? To line their servers? It’s being used to train services, and those services that have ads have those ads targeted using the data collected in the first sentence I quoted.

In fact they DO anonymise the data they collect

So does google. Again, to the broader thread audience replying to my original comment, what is the difference?

The difference is that there are actually companies out there that will sell you the raw data they collected. E.g. your name and address if they have, your browsing history obtained through shady extension and so on.

So there is a difference between selling the data and hoarding it to show targeted ads.

And while both may not be cool, to me anyone with some money being able to buy my data is clearly worse. So it’s helpful distinguishing there. It’s not all “selling your data”. You are also doing your argument a disservice by lumping it all into the same bucket.

You’re right. Not sure why you’re downvoted.

Google would be stupid to sell your data. Instead they keep it private, and when people go to Google, they tell them to push ads to certain groups or take surveys from certain groups, and Google does so. They do not hand those advertisers your data, otherwise those advertisers would never come back. They have the data.

I recently learned that one method for companies to get around data selling laws is to give the data away for free in order to attract certain types of advertisers, then, they sell ad slots for people with specific demographics or interests.

They don’t sell the data because that is harder to do with laws restricting it, so they just use it as advertiser bait in ways that bypass the law.

Further reading: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and

There is a massive leap between collecting data and selling your data.

I am against both but in the digital age actually knowing who has your data is such a relief. My old email got sold to third party’s a bit to many times and to this day 80% of the incoming messages are blatant generic America targeted phishing.

@zettajon @hardypart there is nothing stating that Apple is using your data, selling your data, or even getting your data. While it did create a situation where ad dollars are going to App Store it’s still not targeted other than by search. Your own posted link says nothing about what you claimed. There are plenty of issues to bring up about Apple without the need of fabricating one.

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Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.(www.bbc.com)

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