We’re not sure how many of you might have noticed, but in recent times, Apple has been putting out ads advertising their products where they are emphasizing on their focus and commitment to privacy (like the ad above). Basically, the company is suggesting that unlike others, they are taking your privacy seriously and are not using your personal data for profit.
Apple has not been subtle at who they have been taking aim at, and it seems that some of the companies Apple has been shading has spoken up. In a report from the New York Times, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai seems to have taken aim at Apple in a subtle way. In the interview, he talks about Google’s approach to privacy and how despite them using user data, they only do so in a “useful” way.
According to Pichai, “Our mission compels us to take the same approach to privacy. For us, that means privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services. Privacy must be equally available to everyone in the world.” That being said, Pichai does have a point where he suggests that just because customers can’t afford a certain product, it does not mean that their privacy should be compromised.
That being said, Google isn’t exactly squeaky clean either. The company had previously been found to have launched an iOS app that collected data on users in exchange for a “reward”, leading Apple to (temporarily) disabling Google’s ability to seed internal iOS apps.