Tech Giants Are Finally Responding to Calls for Stricter Privacy Guidelines
For years, Apple has been touting their stance on privacy as a major win for consumers. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that aired last Friday, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has this to say when questioning about the mining of consumers’ private data.
Privacy in itself has become a crisis. If you think about it, when I was growing up, one of the worst things — other than hurting somebody or something — was the peeping Tom. Somebody looking in the window. The fact is the people who track on the internet know a lot more about you than if somebody’s looking in your window. A lot more. You tend to put your thoughts online.
You are not our product. Our products are iPhones and iPads. We treasure your data. We want to help you keep it private and keep it secure. We’re on your side.
This is fixable.
Cook’s phrasing that “you are not our product” is a direct jab at companies like Google and Facebook whose revenue streams have relied on mining user data and monetizing it in the form of tailored ads presented to consumers.
Public Pressure for Change
These practices revolving around the collection of user data, in part, have led to the slew of scandals Facebook endured throughout 2018 and into 2019. Google also found itself in a bit of hot water in late 2018 once it was discovered that third party developers were able to scan, index, and share information pulled directly from users’ Gmail inboxes.
With the blatant misuse of consumer data bombarding headline after headline, lawmakers, privacy champions and the public alike have started to request more stringent regulations on consumer privacy and digital surveillance.
The world’s two largest digital ad corporations responded to these requests on stage at their annual developer conferences this week and last week, both echoing a similar sentiment: privacy is a top priority moving forward.
Facebook’s Private Future
Last week, we took a look at the statements Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made on the stage at F8. This is just a snippet of what he had to say:
The future is private. Over time, I believe that a private social platform will be even more important to our lives than our digital town squares. So today, we’re going to start talking about what this could look like as a product, what it means to have your social experience be more intimate, and how we need to change the way we run this company in order to build this.
This isn’t just about building new products. It’s a major shift in how we run this company. We believe that for the future, people want a privacy-focused social platform. I believe that if we build out a fully encrypted interoperable service… that’s going to be an important contribution to the world.
Only Facebook’s internal teams know what a private Facebook will look like at this time, but the fact that this future was revealed to the public at the F8 keynote means that Zuckerberg is taking this new philosophy seriously. We can only hope he delivers on this promise.
Google ???
The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, took a different route than Facebook. Instead of siding with digital privacy activists, Pichai defended Google’s use of personal information while also taking a jab at Apple’s high-priced products:
First, data makes the products and services you use more helpful to you. It’s what enables the Google Assistant to book a rental car for your trip, Maps to tell you how to navigate home and Photos to share vacation pictures with a click of a button.
Second, products use anonymous data in aggregate to be more helpful to everyone. Traffic data in Google Maps reduces gridlock by offering people alternate routes. Queries in Google Translate make translations more accurate for billions of people. Anonymized searches over time help Search understand your questions, even if you misspell them.
Third, a small subset of data helps serve ads that are relevant and that provide the revenue that keeps Google products free and accessible. That revenue also sustains a broad community of content creators, which in turn helps keep content on the web free for everyone. The data used in ads could be based on, for example, something you searched for or an online store you browsed in the past. It does not include the personal data in apps such as Docs or Gmail. Still, if receiving a customized ads experience isn’t helpful, you can turn it off. The choice is yours and we try to make it simple.
In short, yes, Google collects data, but that data is anonymized and put to work in non-nefarious ways. If a consumer decides they would prefer Google to not have certain pieces of data, that information can be revoked at any time.
For decades, Google’s collection and usage of customer data has been ambiguous; the Mountain Valley giant has never explicitly identified which data it was collecting or how it was used, which left consumers to wonder if their information was being sold to advertisers or the government. In light of Google’s new Nest privacy guidelines, this is the first time Pichai has gone on record to state that Google does not scan Google Docs or other personal files for data.
Start a Conversation
What do you think about Google’s and Facebook’s new public stances on user privacy? Are you concerned about their data collection practices? Do you believe that they will use consumer data for the good of their users? Are their new business models good or bad for consumers?
Share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Twitter by commenting on this post.
Thanks for reading!
