Mark Zuckerberg is Wrong. Apple’s Privacy Stance is Genuine

In light of recent news, like Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg throwing shade at each other, I’d like to take a step back and examine both sides of the argument. The argument is: Does Apple actually care about your privacy? Mr. Zuckerberg (and certain Apple critics) would like you to believe that Apple’s privacy stance is just a marketing tactic. I don’t agree.

Tim Cook’s Remarks on Privacy

For several years now, Tim Cook has made allusions to certain companies in Silicon Valley that don’t respect the privacy of users. Reading between the lines, we all know he is referring to Google and Facebook. These two companies have built empires around advertising, the most effective type of which is targeted advertising, and that requires harvesting user data.

For example, in Mr. Cook’s recent interview with Recode‘s Kara Swisher, when asked about Facebook in regards to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he felt that there should be more regulation when it comes to technology companies, saying:

This certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary…The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike, and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view, it shouldn’t exist.

In 2015, when Mr. Cook was honored by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), he spoke about privacy, security, and peoples’ right to encryption:

I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information. They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Remarks on Privacy

In response to Tim Cooks remarks in his 2018 interview, Mr. Zuckerberg fired back:

You know, I find that argument, that if you’re not paying that somehow we can’t care about you, to be extremely glib…And not at all aligned with the truth…If you want to build a service which is not just serving rich people, then you need to have something people can afford…I think it’s important that we don’t all get Stockholm syndrome, and let the companies that work hard to charge you more, convince you that they actually care more about you,” he said. Because that sounds ridiculous to me.

That has been the standard argument in the tech market for years. If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product. Companies have to make money somehow, and the usual way of making money is to sell your data.

Page 2: Apple’s Privacy History and What Steve Jobs Thought

Page 2 – Apple’s Privacy History and What Steve Jobs Thought

In contrast, the most popular argument about Apple is that the company can afford to care about privacy, because it makes its money on hardware. I’ve written about this before in my piece Apple’s Privacy is a Feature, Not a Hangup. The argument says that if Apple was more like Google and Facebook, it wouldn’t care about privacy so much. But Apple’s privacy stance began with Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs’s Remarks on Privacy

A well-known interview with Steve Jobs was in 2010 when Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg interviewed him:

Even 8 years ago Apple was thinking about the privacy of its customers, like with app permissions. Steve was saying that iOS makes sure to keep bugging users when an app requests their data.

Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly. I’m an optimist; I believe people are smart, and some people want to share more data than other people do. Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data.

This is where my argument starts. When I judge something, whether it be a person or a company, I tend to look at their actions, not just what they say. People can and will say anything, including: Actions speak louder than words.

True, those are “just” the words of Steve Jobs. But here are the actions: Technologies like encryption, differential privacy, Touch ID and Face ID, the Secure Enclave, strict App Store guidelines, etc. Apple is going out of its way to make its products and services private.

I’m not here to take pot shots at Mr. Zuckerberg or even defend Apple. Apple doesn’t need bloggers like me to defend it. But I think you either believe that Apple cares about privacy, or it doesn’t. There is no “Apple cares because they can afford to”. There is no “If Facebook and Apple switched places, Apple would advertise and Facebook would be private.” Those arguments are fallacious and seems to me an example of “whataboutism.”

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