News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by maeln on Friday August 03, 2018 @04:51AM (#17678254)
Apple still control its eco-system very tightly. Let's not forget that they also made questionable decisions with the Apple store. They were also had one scandal about location tracking and sharing if I remember correctly (which may have prompted their strong stand on customer privacy nowadays).

EDIT: Yes, in 2011: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28apple.html

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by thecleaner on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:07AM (#17678584)
Yes, apple has made some questionable decisions. But Facebook has made downright unethical decisions. I am not trying to "what-about-it" their mistakes, however for the amount of effort they put in to ensure user privacy and security and also for the sheer delight of using their products, I am glad they are a 1T company and I hope they continue to be so. Imagine FB controlling the smartphone, how much privacy would someone have then ?
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by syshum on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:51AM (#17678769)
See I believe Apple makes down right unethical decisions as well, like when they sue refreshers and repair shops...

When they threaten to sue Youtubers who are educating people on how to repair their devices

When they lobby aka payoff governments to prevent right to repair laws

When they refuse to release tools and information that allow owners access to their hardware

When they refuse to acknowledge hardware design flaws or stand behind their products...

I could go on but the point is the idea that Facebook makes unethical decisions but Apple does not depends on what one considered ethical. Walled gardens to me are unethical so i do not buy products in walled gardens.

Like wise I do not accept having my data sold as a commodity so I never joined facebook. They likely have a shadow profile on me, which I do find unethical, but most people are complaining about them selling data they themselves gave to facebook in exchange for a free service, I do not find that to be unethical. People that created an account with Facebook, for free, should have suspected this.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by another-one-off on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:59AM (#17678796)
In semi-rare cases, majorities organise against minorities. If that happens and the majority gets access to the data stored in something like Facebook's databases, it will be catastrophic. We can't say what minority it will be either. Rich people? Gypsies? Foreigners? Farmers? Poor people? They've all been persecuted groups at some point or another in some country.

This isn't comparable to something like not being able to repair my phone, requiring me to buy a new phone.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by syshum on Friday August 03, 2018 @07:05AM (#17678815)
ohh please, that is hyperbolic to the extreme.

The solution to that is for people to stop storing that level of personal info in facebook. I can't believe people would share that kind of intimate information, enough that their life would be threatened (as you imply) simply because someone gained access to their facebook profile.

Me not having access to information on my device impacts me today, in reality. Your statement is a far fetched unrealistic projection of a dystopian world that I have no reason to entertain outside of fictional novel

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by scarface74 on Friday August 03, 2018 @08:17AM (#17679204)
The solution to that is for people to stop storing that level of personal info in facebook. I can't believe people would share that kind of intimate information,

People don’t have to specifically share the information with Facebook. You can infer a lot about people based on thier friends graph, thier likes, and FB tracks you across the web. You can tell which income percentile people most likely fall in just by the movies they said they liked (https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/02/635129556/grey...).

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by davidrm on Friday August 03, 2018 @07:18AM (#17678890)
i applaude you to sticking to your principles and voting with your dollar, however i do not share your sentiment about walled gardens.

and when it comes to ethics, same argument can be made for apple with regarda to users controlling their hardware. (if) you are informed about the limitations of said hardware and general terms under which you bought it, then they have every right to protect their business model. it makes no sense to me to force a company to change the foundation of their business, and i dont wanna hear about “minor cutting” into their profits, the ROI is not something that should be adjusted by a 3rd party after consenting entities made a contract, and one side decides that it no longer wishes to honor it.

im not in favor of forbidding the things you listed, apple is not without sin, and they wouldnt suffer much with the legislation being changed, but i believe that the scale and trade off of the consequences should not be a factor in deciding whether we stick to a principal of honoring legally binding contracts, even if it’s EULA that might seem unfair. those issues mustn’t be adressed post factum and uncoerced consumers should not be coddled.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by syshum on Friday August 03, 2018 @07:32AM (#17678948)
My position in somewhere in the middle, some of the Right to repair laws go a little too far for me, however what I do 100% oppose is Apple being able to use copyright, trademark, and import laws to block people from disseminating repair information and parts that were re manufactured, repaired, or even reverse engineered.

I do not believe a business has a "right to protect their business model" and while i do not believe they should be forced to sell me parts or provide me with detailed technical manuals, they should also not be allowed to prevent 3rd parties from filling that market, or put in technical blocks with the sole intention of preventing repairs

Things like Locking the screen and sysem board to each other in firmware preventing people from changing and repairing said devices also IMO crosses that line for me, this is currently being done on the newer iphones.

It is not simply about ownership either it is a massive ecological concern. Apples ewaste program like all other electronics manufactures is laughable at best.

On the topics of contracts and EULA's contract law is fascinating topic, one of the reason EULA's are considered by some to be unenforceable in any real measure is most of them as written would not be classified as an enforceable contract. Contracts have keys things that many EULA's lack, further it is not uncommon for entirely one sided contracts in other area's to be considered by the courts to be unenforceable as well. This is why you see many employment agreements fail if their enforcement actually goes to a court.

So no my statements do not in any way undermine our current foundation of honoring contracts, we already have mechanisms in place to render unfair, one sided contracts like abusive EULA's void in the courts as it is.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by ckastner on Friday August 03, 2018 @04:56AM (#17678276)
Sure, Apple isn't spotless.

But their main business model, as far as I can tell, is making money by selling premium hardware.

Facebook et al. make money by collecting and selling other people's data.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by tonyedgecombe on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:32AM (#17678676)
Facebook can't even fix it because it's inherent in their business model.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by pluma on Friday August 03, 2018 @05:46AM (#17678489)
Facebook et al. make money by harvesting your data and using it so other people can try to sell you stuff.

Apple makes money by holding your data hostage to convince you to buy expensive hardware.

That said, Apple's business model doesn't require them to violate your privacy -- to derive value, they only need to hold the data you give them, not really do anything with it. Facebook's and Google's business model is only possible with a complete disregard for your privacy rights.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by ckastner on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:13AM (#17678602)
> That said, Apple's business model doesn't require them to violate your privacy -- to derive value, they only need to hold the data you give them, not really do anything with it. Facebook's and Google's business model is only possible with a complete disregard for your privacy rights.

That's a good point! Although Google is commendably venturing out into all kinds of other areas.

Facebook, however, doesn't seem to be doing much other than just hawking data.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by AmericanChopper on Friday August 03, 2018 @05:50AM (#17678503)
What data of mine is Apple holding hostage? As far as I can remember, I’ve only ever brought Apple hardware because I like it so much.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by onceKnowable on Friday August 03, 2018 @01:02PM (#17681498)
There’s no need to be defensive or naive about Apple’s data gathering. It’s clearly stated in all of their terms that they gather usage data. Personally, I’d trust them more than Facebook, Google and most other companies. But to assume they’re gathering and storing no data is mistaken. It’s not your fault either, there’s a population-wide innocence about what data companies gather on us that will eventually be overcome as more people get exposed to the negative repercussions of what happens when data like that gets breached, hopefully leading to future laws clamping down on data usage and retention timeframes.

Data that Apple have on you includes but is not limited to:

- what time, location and what internet connection you use to do any of the following on an apple device: — open an app, and what app you opened — take a photo — look at your photo gallery — watch a video — basically do almost anything - also your iCloud files are all viewable by their engineers

Most of their staff only have access to anonymized versions of all of that data that engineers in particular use to find bugs and optimize UI’s, but thousands of their staff can view your raw data.

That’s not to say you should be worried. But you should be aware.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by chrisdhoover on Saturday August 04, 2018 @12:20AM (#17685365)
Engineers having access to raw data may be true but it goes against their stated privacy rules
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by cmsj on Friday August 03, 2018 @05:55AM (#17678519)
You could maybe make an argument that something like iMessage is a platform lock-in.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by AmericanChopper on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:02AM (#17678556)
That seems like a pretty weak example. I use about half a dozen instant messaging apps (iMessage probably the least), and I believe that’s pretty common.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by mamon on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:27AM (#17678664)
I recently tried to copy a bunch of photo albums FROM iPhone TO PC. Apple makes that difficult, because iTunes only supports synching data in the opposite direction. Also, it would happily offer to delete your photos from phone and replacing it with folder content from PC. Now imagine that you spill coffee on your laptop and the only copy of your data is on iPhone - Apple makes it difficult for you to access your own data.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by scarface74 on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:42AM (#17678739)
You plug in your phone to your PC and it shows up as a drive and you copy the photos. You don't need iTunes at all.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by mamon on Friday August 03, 2018 @12:47PM (#17681380)
Oh, I tried that, but you know what? Out of almost a 1000 photos I have on my iPhone only 97 showed up, ready to be copied - the ones that I took with the iPhone camera. Those uploaded with iTunes were inaccessible.

That’s when I decided to never buy an iDevice again.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by gbear605 on Friday August 03, 2018 @01:38PM (#17681819)
That's (probably) because you had your phone set to optimize storage and store them on the cloud. You can fix this by going to the Settings app, going to Photos, and selecting "Download and Keep Originals" instead of "Optimize iPhone Storage."

This isn't lock-in, this is helping you by allowing you to take more photos.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by AmericanChopper on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:42AM (#17678736)
This simply isn’t true, you can use iCloud, the windows photos app, or even just windows explorer to move photos from your iPhone to your PC.
Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by Razengan on Friday August 03, 2018 @07:26AM (#17678918)
To put it another, simpler, way:

Apple can’t influence any country’s elections. Facebook can, and has. Even the most “powerful” country’s.

Re:Apple’s $1T Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompa... by anovikov on Friday August 03, 2018 @06:36AM (#17678698)
Difference is that with Google and Facebook, these 'questionable decisions' are the core and essence of their business. With Apple, it is at worst someone's attempt to cut a few corners, and at best, just someone's negligence.