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Comment by diminoten | Hacker News Reader

What makes you think it's such a big gamble? People just don't care about privacy as much as the news would have you believe.

Don't believe me? Quick, think of one of the largest and most consistently flagrant private entities who violates the privacy of its users on a regular basis, and is well known for it.

Did you say Google? Facebook? Now quickly think of two of the largest companies on the Internet, both in revenue, and traffic volume.

Apple isn't taking nearly the risk you're suggesting, because people just don't care.

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" Quick, think of one of the largest and most consistently flagrant private entities who violates the privacy of its users on a regular basis, and is well known for it."

And then you go on to claim Facebook and Google as examples of your "violation of privacy". That's like saying my email provider violates my privacy because my email goes through their servers. Or the post-office violates my privacy because my snail mail goes through them. Quite a bit of a stretch, if you ask me.

What people do care about is targeted invasion of privacy, for lack of a better phrase. It's one thing having anonymized data "abused" for targeted advertising and selling as aggregated statistics. But it's completely different if you have an entity that can read your emails at will, and decide to throw you in a cage if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person.

Until Apple promised it so explicitly, I'd have said you might be right. True, Google and Facebook make zillions off of monitoring people for advertisers. That will make it harder for them to follow suit, there will be far more weasel words and such when they try.

I think those of us that are willing to pay the premium for something that promises more have higher expectations. If they are lying, I believe we'll know within the next year or two and we'll get to find out if you're right.

Out of interest do you have an example of Google's weasel wording this issue? They're getting criticised by all the same people and seem to be doing the same thing - is there actually an advantage either way here?

Just to clarify, I'm skeptical on both sides - both companies were in the prism leaks after all. But I haven't seen weasel wording and I'm curious if I missed it.

Actually, no, that was just a prediction. I am making an assumption - and maybe not a fair one - that because Google mines user data on the web that they also mine user data on the phone.

Skepticism seems warranted. With Apple, I try to be skeptical, but with Google, I always assume that I am the product until they demonstrate otherwise.

I don't believe in that claim.

I do believe in that claim.

You could say that people don't take design seriously, and use google and Facebook as examples.

But Apple does. And though most people won't consciously notice that their products are well designed, it is a big part of what makes Apple "magical".

People do care. We care and while we may be a tiny minority right now, there are a lot more of us than there were 10 and 20 years ago.

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