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I am convinced most if not all of the "privacy" messaging around Apple is just a LARP.
Here are some points in particular I consider when saying that:
  • Apple kicked the privacy talk into overdrive when they introduced iOS 14 which severely hampered Facebook's profitability because it completely borked their tracking capabilities. Well at least they're standing up for privacy right? Well, I actually think it has to do with the fact that ZUCC stated publicly that they want to usurp the iPhone with the MetaVerse dystopia slave tech. Tim Apple's response: good luck with that. We're cutting your revenue by 30% kid. I do not think it was much more complicated than that. Monopolism thinly veiled with a virtue signal. The California Special.
  • Recently, we learned that Apple knew US intelligence has been snooping on push notifications for years and yet they did nothing. Not only did they do nothing, but they actually prevent devices from using any server that isn't in the APNS system (Apple owned). That prevents the system from decentralizing and federating. In this case unlike the first, corporate interested (walled garden preservation) was more important than their stated values of privacy.
Do they care about privacy? Sure. They don't want people to stop buying their shit because their privacy is overtly exploited. But fundamentally they don't care about anything other than the bottom line & being able to say "we're holier than thou".