this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
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So we are back to Apples promises of privacy and security being meaningless because you can't verify that any of these claims are valid. The hardware may be secure but that doesn't mean much in this case.
I never left the topic of Apple's promises of privacy and security. The article you linked initially is completely about third party apps and their tracking. Using their App Store policies, Apple have steered apps into stating if they track you or not. It doesn't eliminate tracking. It simply lets the user know how much data will be harvested.
You can see how it shook up a lot of the big harvesters when they were EXTREMELY slow to update their apps following this policy going into affect. Each app had to determine what was being harvested and figure out a way to let the user know. You'll notice the big apps like any Google apps, Facebook (Meta), IG, etc waited a looooong time before releasing any of that data.
Apple themselves post this data in each and everyone of their apps. You can find it in the app store. Its transparent, and they let you know what they do with it.
There is no secret tracking, if thats what you are implying. The article you linked focuses on third party apps anyways, not Apple's own apps.
Apple above all has more access than any 3rd party app. You simply have no way of knowing what apple is doing behind the scenes without the source code. You are merely taking their word for it.
I'd love to have the source code, yes, but there are literally zero ads on my apple devices until I open the app store.
What data are they harvesting? and again, can you provide a source that they are harvesting data on users?
I'm done with this. Ads in this case are just one aspect. Apples ad service is a multi billion dollar part of their business and if you think they've done that with zero ad targeting you're being extremely naive.
Harvesting data in this case is also extremely vague and doesn't have to involve ads at all. If they're advertising privacy and security then it obviously should be about more than ad targeting data. It should be the case that they have no access to any user data on the device or being stored in the cloud. For instance iCloud storage is not end to end encrypted by default, instead Apple has the encryption keys and can decrypt user data at any time.
You absolutely cannot guarantee privacy and security without knowing exactly what's going on behind the scenes, especially when we are talking about a company that is more beholden to shareholders than its own users.
Need a source for that, m8. Otherwise you're just blindly throwing around conspiracies with no proof that they harvest any data (which you haven't linked to during this entire conversation)
All data on any Apple device is encrypted by default. Once you decide to send it to iCloud, they give you an option to turn on Advanced Data Protection (ADP), which allows you to encrypt your data with your own keys in true end-to-end fashion. That means they do not have the keys. This is optional at the moment because not all supported apple devices can use this feature, and also it isn't authorized for use with certain accounts (like children accounts). It also requires that the user store the keys offline in a way they won't lose them, because if they lose the keys, there is no way for Apple to let you recover that data since they don't have the keys themselves.
Again, the documentation that I posted earlier that you are just brushing off have their entire security and privacy processes laid out for you to read. If you are refusing to accept that Apple and multiple government and private organizations came together to create those standards, then thats on you denying the science and research behind it. So do you, boo.
This was 2 years ago but you can find more up to date numbers with a quick search and it's only increased since this Forbes article was written.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddoty/2023/02/08/apple-the-story-behind-its-new-ad-offerings-to-retailers-restaurants-hotels-other-location-based-businesses/
You just repeated back what I just told you but with more details. The end to end encryption of iCloud is not the default so most users are not end to end encrypted. The device encryption is standard across the board for when it comes to mobile devices and this isn't something that makes apple special. This also doesn't prevent apple from accessing the data on the device. Which again could be the case but we have no way of knowing without the source code.
Again these certifications are held by many manufacturers of mobile phones. You seem to think this makes them incapable of having backdoors and that just isn't the case. All they are verifying is that their encryption methods and the hardware performing the encryption are working as intended. They are in no way a guarantee of privacy or a guarantee that Apple won't write code to access user data. If that were the case then everyone else with these certifications would also be making ads about how secure they are. They can all theroughly document their process for handling biometrics, keys, ECT but that still doesn't show us the source code. Even if you think some magical system exists that can scan the source for backdoors, and these private organizations run apples source through this system to certify them, you still have no guarantee that the backdoor wasn't added immediately after it was certified. Trusted security is open source and apple doesn't have it. It doesn't matter how many stickers they slap on it or how many promises they make.
Lastly Apple constantly emphasizes a commitment to privacy as a fundamental human right, built on principles like data minimization, on-device processing, transparency and control, and security but that load of bullshit went out the window when China tested them on it. They reversed course on all of it, including what they consider to be a human right, just to make some money.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-privacy-censorship.html