Apple and Push for Privacy
Graphic Credit: Bernadette Berdychowski
On March 25, Apple unveiled all new products at its March Keynote that included a new streaming platform, a paid news subscription service, a credit card to pair with Apple Pay, and much more. But, most importantly, Apple unveiled a revamped policy on privacy.
On March 14, Apple released a commercial ad titled “Privacy on iPhone” that showcased privacy in everyone’s day-to-day life ranging from a private conversation in a diner to rolling your window up while you do your makeup in the car on the way to work. Towards the end of the video, the sentence “If privacy matters in your life...It should matter to the phone your life is on. Privacy. That’s iPhone.” shows up on the screen.
Since when did iPhone care about privacy?
Well, compared to Google or Facebook, they do.
According to The Verge, “unlike those giants, it doesn’t sell targeted ads, and it doesn’t collect and distribute the massive amounts of personal data associated with that.”
The way Apple differentiates itself from companies like Google or Facebook, and Tim Cook has done this wonderfully, is by promoting Apple as the responsible tech company in the world. In their YouTube commercial mentioned earlier, the video description states, “Your privacy matters. From encrypting your iMessage conversations, or not keeping a history of your routes in Maps, to limiting tracking across sites with Safari. iPhone is designed to protect your information.”
So, let’s now go into the specifics of each new product Apple released.
Apple TV+: Apple’s new streaming video service, will come to market this coming Fall and will be ad-free. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, was able to acquire the talents of Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, Oprah, J.J. Abrams, and Damien Chazelle for new films, tv shows, or live podcasts on the platform. The subscription price is unknown at this time.
Apple News+: Apple’s news service platform, offers a conglomerate of 300 magazines and newspapers like Wired, The New Yorker, GQ, The Washington post, etc. TechCrunch notes, “The service will also customize itself to your interests, but won’t do so by tracking what you read. Instead, Apple says the service will download groups of articles from its servers. And then it uses on-device intelligence to make recommendations. That means Apple won’t know what you read and won’t allow advertisers to track you either.” A subscription will be $9.99 a month.
The Apple Card: Apple’s new credit card, will be available this coming Summer 2019. According to Techcrunch’s Zack Whittaker, Apple Card “is designed to to replace your traditional credit card and give you perks, such as daily cash.”
Nearly all payments will be made from Apple Pay, but if there is a location that does not accept Apple Pay, you are also given a physical, titanium Apple Card with no credit card number, security code, expiration date, or signature. A fascinating feature to the card is the state-of-the-art security system within the technology. The card is given a credit card number, but it is stored away within the data of the phone, making credit card fraud nearly impossible. Whittaker continues explaining Apple Card’s security features by stating, “Apple Card seems to meld the two things: a virtual credit card with a rotating security code, protected by a biometric, like Touch ID or Face ID in newer devices...Now if someone wants to commit fraud, they need to steal your phone and your face or fingerprint.” There are no annual fees to this card.
While new platforms and an innovative credit card are intriguing, it’s the push for privacy that takes the cake at Apple’s March Keynote. Maybe there is a big tech firm that does care about our privacy afterall.