For starters, Apple’s commitment to privacy makes me feel way better about them having my purchase data and being able to add value alongside my other personal data: potentially less opportunity for fraud, better offers, better purchase insights, etc. Maybe not “amazing”, but I can see some ways it could be quite nice compared to alternatives.
Generally I feel safer with Apple owning my phone data... but once you accumulate enough data in one company, the incentives for corruption and mis-use are too great. Let's not let more companies become "too big to fail" or "regulatory capture is a cost of doing business".
I would imagine they will have access to your purchase data, otherwise what is the point for Goldman? And you can bet they will be using that data for all sorts of investments. Similarly to how location data is used for all sorts of gain by large companies [1,2].
> Apple’s commitment to privacy makes me feel way better about them having my purchase data ...
Sure. The thing is, how long do you think this "commitment" is going to last?
I trusted Google in the early days and got burned when I realized how invasive and intrusive they had become, and were totally unapologetic about it. I do not see why Apple - a trillion dollar multi-national corporate - will be any different.
In fact, they already have a lot of data on you, especially if you use iCloud. And Apple has already started becoming intrusive under the guise of protecting our privacy -
e.g. "Oh we are going to block all multi-site pervasive tracking on Safari - to protect your privacy! But ofcourse, first we need to know what and all sites sets these cookies on your device ... and so we can't let you control your cookies. But don't worry, everything will be anonymized ..."
or
how IOS 12+ now deliberately makes it even more difficult to find the "Restrictions" setting panel that gives you fine grained control over allowing or restricting access to cameras, microphones, contacts etc. (it's now under - Settings > Screen Time and tap Content & Privacy Restrictions)
or
how ios 12+ "Screen Time" is designed to collect information on everything you do on your iDevice (even other iDevices and sync all that info through iCloud) ...
And so on ... so let's not kid ourselves that a for-profit CORPORATE is our best bet in protecting OUR privacy - they want you to believe that so that we don't use our collective will to pressurize our democratic government to make privacy enhancing laws and regulate companies that insist on collecting our data.
(On a related note, other governments have begun to recognize that defending their citizen's right can protect their country's interest and sovereignty. That is why EU has been tightening their laws. And this - https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-has-been-sharing-india... - explains why India, for example, is now insisting that US companies store their data in India).
> I trusted Google in the early days and got burned when I realized how invasive and intrusive they had become, and were totally unapologetic about it.
I'm assuming this was pre-gmail then, as they were very open about what they were doing once gmail came along, just very few of us actually understood the implications of what that meant at the time.
> e.g. "Oh we are going to block all multi-site pervasive tracking on Safari - to protect your privacy! But ofcourse, first we need to know what and all sites sets these cookies on your device ... and so we can't let you control your cookies. But don't worry, everything will be anonymized ..."
I don't think iOS has ever let you have fine-grained control over what cookies are present on your device. It's not that they've removed this option, they never added it in the first place. MacOS has this ability still.
> how IOS 12+ now deliberately makes it even more difficult to find the "Restrictions" setting panel that gives you fine grained control over allowing or restricting access to cameras, microphones, contacts etc. (it's now under - Settings > Screen Time and tap Content & Privacy Restrictions)
This is device-level restrictions, IE to prevent whoever's using your device from making changes, rather than app-level stuff. App-level stuff is even more prominent than ever. Settings -> Privacy
> how ios 12+ "Screen Time" is designed to collect information on everything you do on your iDevice (even other iDevices and sync all that info through iCloud) ...
iCloud sync disabled by default, opt-in, not opt-out. You have to turn it on if you want to have a view of all your devices from a single pane of glass. If you don't, and are happy checking each device individually, you can do that too.
Much like gmail, this was also announced very loudly, so you may be right that this is a warning of terrible things to come.
> let's not kid ourselves that a for-profit CORPORATE is our best bet in protecting OUR privacy
You are absolutely right. Unfortunately, privacy is like security - you have to trade between that and convenience. As far as smartphones go, most private and convenient option (for me) is an Apple device. Which sucks, as Apple is overpriced, and has a software stack that rivals Microsofts in the early 2000s. I use it because I'm locked into the eco-system and there's no "better" (subjective) alternative, not because I have any particular joy in using their products anymore.
> I'm assuming this was pre-gmail then, as they were very open about what they were doing once gmail came along
Actually, they weren't - in fact, it was after Gmail that their subtle marketing become louder that Google "does no evil" and would be a champion for your privacy. Google "reading you email" to show ads was controversial. They went to great length to try to fool us that data from their various products would never be combined and be isolated.
For example, they claimed that anyone using Google Adsense on a website wouldn't have any benefits in enhancing their presence on Google search results. But SEO's knew it long before Google themselves announced, that using Google Adsense on a website ensured that Google would crawl their website immediately.
You are right that very few of us understood the implications of what they were doing.
> I don't think iOS has ever let you have fine-grained control over what cookies are present on your device.
They did. Safari in IOS 7 had these four options for "Cookies and Website Data":
- Always Block
- Allow from current websites only
- Allow from websites I visit
- Always Allow
Where as now there is only "Block All Cookies" option. Naturally, you can't enable and use that since it breaks a lot of websites. And so we have to believe Apple that their "anti-tracking" is robust and actually works, while also allowing Apple to know every website I visit.
> This is device-level restrictions, IE to prevent whoever's using your device from making changes,
These subtle design changes are called "Dark Patterns" and intended to mislead and confuse the user.
An example of a dark pattern in a user interface is signing out of Gmail. If you remember, Gmail (as did Hotmail, YMail etc.) used to prominently show the LOGOUT / SIGNOUT link in top right corner, or in the bottom of their page. But then, they hid it in a drop down menu. So most users, confused, just closed their browser window when they couldn't figure out how to logout. Thus, allowing Google to better profile them by associating their search history using the Google Account / Gmail cookies. Now even Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook etc. all do the same.
Their earlier design was easier and better. Now they have just made it more UN-intuitive and confusing. This is deliberate, in my opinion.
> iCloud sync disabled by default, opt-in, not opt-out.
And sometimes, when you update ios / macOS, you suddenly find that all iCloud options have been enabled by default and all your earlier settings changed. I have noticed this once or twice in last 10 years or so since I started using iDevices.
> As far as smartphones go, most private and convenient option (for me) is an Apple device.
Try Sailfish OS on Sony Phones. ( https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ - this is the mobile OS that Apple is concerned about as it has all the features of a desktop OS with true multi-tasking, and yet is truly built for mobile with its gesture based ui (that Apple has copied from them).
Ofcourse, Sailfish OS still has to go a long way in offering the kind of device level and app level restrictions that ios offers, but I am hopeful it'll reach feature parity soon.
