Apple Data Privacy Joke

This article calls Apple’s commitment to security and privacy a “superficial jihad” simply on the basis that regulating data collection might weaken Apple’s competitors.

This is a bad line of reasoning. An organization can care about X intrinsically despite the fact that X has other benefits. The claimed other benefits also aren’t useful in this case; if Apple’s competitors see reduced value in data collection, then it’s even more important for them to excel in the ways that are closer to Apple’s strategy, increasing Apple’s competition.

Besides, I’ve seen Apple dedicate loads of engineering efforts prioritizing security and privacy over the years, while also passing over easy money to be had from their users’ data. It appears to be a sincere and long-established commitment.