this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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Apple makes a shitload of money from the devices and ecosystem that have access to their cloud storage, they don't have the same incentive to use the data itself for profit. In fact, keeping the data as private as they can is a selling point for the devices and ecosystem they make bank from. Dropbox doesn't have that.
lol
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/
Yes, and? It even says right there in the article that they have to balance the ad part to not demolish their reputation for privacy. It'd be extremely foolish of them to start accessing people's private files like that if they want to still be seen as caring about privacy, and I can promise you they are fully aware. That doesn't mean that they will always put an emphasis on privacy, but for now they do.
Oh, well then I'm sure Apple will be the first big tech advertising company that doesn't violate their users privacy in search of more profits.
Sounds like you have nothing to worry about.
I do have nothing to worry about because I'm not an Apple user.
Key words right there: "more profits"
Many iPhone users use that particular phone because of privacy, since the only other option is Google who has a well known track record of not caring about it. If Apple destroys their reputation for privacy they remove the biggest reason for why many users choose their phones, which often in turn leads to a buy-in to the whole ecosystem (=lots of money). They might as well choose Google then. That would be a loss of profits. For it to be worth it the data mining of people's private files would have to on its own provide an increase in profits greater than the loss from consumers fleeing. And it might, but again, they'd lose a very unique and often times important reputation. That's a big and risky decision for them to make - to radically change their whole public persona. My guess is they want to keep that reputation for as long as they can and use other means to make their ads effective that aren't as blatantly privacy invading. Down the line though it will of course only get worse, because that has been the only trend in this world of enshittification.