Why do people conflate the FaceTime bug with Apple not caring about privacy?

mrochester · 1 Feb 2019 at 19:03

The reason I buy and use Apple's products is because they don't have a business that relies on my personal data being collected to sell targeted advertising. My transactions with Apple are very simple, I pay money, I get product, and my privacy against mass data collection to sell advertising is protected because I then use no products or services on my devices that utilise that business model.

So why do people think that a bug in FaceTime is somehow indication of Apple not caring about user privacy? I don't understand how the connection is made between a bug in software and Apple's business model. What do Apple stand to gain by deliberately letting people listen in to others over FaceTime? Are Apple collecting all these snippets of speech to sell to someone?

Is anyone able to enlighten me how the 2 things are connected?

Many thanks.

M.

Feek · 1 Feb 2019 at 19:06

It's fashionable to hate Apple.

/thread

ChrisD. · 1 Feb 2019 at 19:06

^this

mrochester · 1 Feb 2019 at 19:13

Feek said:
It's fashionable to hate Apple.

/thread

What purpose does it serve to essentially create a fake narrative though?

Feek · 1 Feb 2019 at 21:34

Feek said:
It's fashionable to hate Apple.

/thread

mrochester said:
What purpose does it serve to essentially create a fake narrative though?

People feel good about hating Apple because it's fashionable to hate Apple.

shine · 1 Feb 2019 at 21:51

Feek said:
It's fashionable to hate Apple.

/thread

This plus you need a sexy headline/content for those all important clicks and ad revenue.

There is also a lack of journalists who actually understand technology so they just see 2 and 2 and pick the first number that comes to mind.

mrochester · 2 Feb 2019 at 06:37

shine said:
This plus you need a sexy headline/content for those all important clicks and ad revenue.

There is also a lack of journalists who actually understand technology so they just see 2 and 2 and pick the first number that comes to mind.

How do we solve the problem?

Feek · 2 Feb 2019 at 06:49

We don’t. Just ignore it. There’s no point getting wound up or responding.

Remember my first post in this thread, there is nothing you can do about it.

mrochester · 2 Feb 2019 at 06:51

Feek said:
We don’t. Just ignore it. There’s no point getting wound up or responding.

Remember my first post in this thread, there is nothing you can do about it.

Hopefully the noise will have no impact on Apple and they will continue to do their good work. I don’t want to see Apple watered down to be like google or Facebook else there’ll be nowhere left to turn.

Minstadave · 2 Feb 2019 at 08:29

Didn't the Mum of the lad who found the bug struggle to get Apple to pay any attention despite multiple attempts to alert them to the bug?

mrochester · 2 Feb 2019 at 08:32

Minstadave said:
Didn't the Mum of the lad who found the bug struggle to get Apple to pay any attention despite multiple attempts to alert them to the bug?

Yeah it seems Apple need to improve their bug reporting procedure, which they’ve said they will do.

shine · 2 Feb 2019 at 13:06

mrochester said:
Hopefully the noise will have no impact on Apple and they will continue to do their good work. I don’t want to see Apple watered down to be like google or Facebook else there’ll be nowhere left to turn.

This is a bad coding/config problem, while not good PR it will not force Apple to change their business model.

Considering how Facebook operate and still have many users I do not think Apple are in any danger.

UberTiger · 9 Feb 2019 at 10:53

The Facetime bug is exactly that, it was a bug. They acted pretty fast and fixed it.

What bothers me more this week is the lack of reasoning and explanation in the top comments on MacRumours, Reddit etc. about some of the largest app developers using analytics software to track user experience to improve their software.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/06/iphone-apps-screen-recordings-analytics/

https://www.glassboxdigital.com/the-definitive-guide-to-session-replay-recording/

It's nothing new, it's not nefarious and ton's of big websites do exactly the same in your browser to better understand how people are interacting with your product.

But all of a sudden because a couple of app developer ****** up their credit card or password masking in their app, it becomes a huge story, there's a knee jerk reaction from Apple a day later, and these companies are now deprived of the use of incredibly useful tools that enable them to make their products, apps and web services better. I acknowledge the masking problem is an issue, but it could have been fixed without going nuclear on the analytics industry. It's not like they were purposely trying to skim card numbers, and they analytics data wasn't being shared with any 3rd parties. It's sole purpose is to help the devs understand how you use the app improve the user experience.