At a time when Facebook is under the spotlight for abusing user data – and with massive hacks and leaks happening every day – there’s certainly a gap in the market for a company that cares about your privacy.
Enter Apple: The firm that not only cares about your privacy but builds it into every single product. It’s an ideal scenario for people concerned about what happens to their data and of course, that’s what Apple would like you to think. While Facebook was groveling via adverts that it honestly does really care about protecting your data, Apple had launched its own billboard ad. It read: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
Many took this as a dig at Apple’s competitors and rightly so, given events of the past year. Facebook has grappled with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, numerous hacks and data leaks – and a massive outage. It’s now the subject of a US criminal investigation. Google has its own problems and has come under increasing pressure following the EU Update to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) including a record fine of 50 million euros by French regulator CNL.
Apple’s phone ad launched earlier month emphasized: “Privacy. That’s iPhone.”
And yesterday, when Apple launched its Apple Pay credit card, TV streaming, a news service and gaming service, the tech giant emphasized that your privacy was at the heart of its products. Indeed, CEO Tim Cook pointed out that none of these new products would track you, collect your data, or share it with advertisers without your knowledge or permission.
Of course, this stance is not to be dismissed: It’s great that Apple is taking steps to be transparent and respect our data. But Apple’s business model isn’t based on advertisers like its rivals’.
At the same time, the firm isn’t immune from security problems: A recent FaceTime bug caused big issues, and the firm just fixed 50 vulnerabilities in iOS 12.2.
So why is Apple taking this stance? The answer is simple: With regulation such as the GDPR protecting EU citizens, and an increasing focus on privacy in the US too, the firm sees a gap in the market.
It’s true that people are starting to care about their privacy: Big hacks, data leaks and data abuse are now widely reported and even the less technically savvy can’t ignore the problem.
Protecting your privacy – or at least saying you do so – builds trust. It’s also a differentiator: If your options are a service that can outline how it protects your data versus one that doesn’t guarantee it, which would you choose?
