Apple Takes a Dig at Facebook, Google Over Privacy Concerns

Apple launched a slew of services this week but it reiterated its focus on keeping users data secure.

Apple hosted its big event on Monday to launch a slew of services. 

(Photo: Apple screen grab)

Apple announced a slew of services on Monday, as it looks to expand its revenue base beyond iPhones. However, it is hard to move away from the instances where Apple was clear with its message – we don’t track or share user data with other companies.

Fair enough, Apple has been a strong voice with regards to user privacy, something that both Facebook and Google will find hard to match up with.

But in many ways, Apple’s message was simple, if users want to protect their data, it’ll cost them and we all know how that works with all Apple products. This is a straight dig at its rivals, especially Facebook which has over the past year or so reported various incidents of data mishaps at its end.

But one slide in particular, showed over the course of the event “Apple doesn’t allow advertisers to track you” is the symbolic difference between how Apple caters to its users and business compared to Facebook and even Google to some extent.

After all, when was the last time you heard that xyz company got access to your Apple data; location and web history. This is probably the reason why consumers, at least in the West will prefer to go with Apple, and that faith shows up when you look at the iPhone sales statistics.

The success of Android in countries like India has heavily relied on its free-ish nature, and Apple sadly hasn’t made its mark in the affordable segment for Indian consumers, and is unlikely to do it anytime soon.

Tim Cook, CEO, Apple talked about privacy plenty of times at the event.(Photo: Apple screen grab)

There’s a reason why we say “Nothing comes for free” and Apple merely justifies this proverb with its business strategy.

The company, not interested in making money off its users’ data, relies on exorbitant prices of its products to deliver privacy to its consumers which has made the company billions of dollars over decades.

Some might argue that Facebook and Google’s business model doesn’t afford them to focus on privacy as much as Apple, giving them the chance to ‘democratise’ technology. But then again, isn’t it high time that users and their data on the internet start becoming the focal point of concern for these technology giants?