Exchange data against services. This tacit Agreement since many years is the Foundation of the Internet. And some companies, even whole industries, make a good living of it. They earn billions, by piling up more and more data about the users and systematically evaluate it. However, since almost every week a privacy scandal dominated the headlines, this action on the part of the user principle in question. And the business model of advertising-based companies. The people gradually get a feeling for how much abuse can be driven with data, and the force with which the society in which we live, can change.
If Apple opened on Monday its annual developer conference, WWDC, will the group not only glimpses of its upcoming operating system for the iPhone and iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Also the issue of data protection is likely to play a Central role. Because as soon as a group is on stage so much as a champion for the privacy of its users like Apple. Company CEO Tim Cook called it right in a speech before the European Parliament, even as a “fundamental human”.
but Above all, the WWDC is the stage of Apple’s Software chief Craig Federighi. The 50-Year-old is not afraid of the Public and has already been used on several occasions, the opportunity to take a stand: The advertising industry is “smart and relentless,” he said last year in front of Thousands of spectators, and he was going to do everything it can to make business as difficult as possible.
In an interview with the star Federighi, what distinguishes Apple’s privacy setting from other companies explains how to user comfort and privacy fit together and why the group is unlocked in the case of terrorist attacks, no devices for authorities.
“We build products for ourselves,”
Federighi is convinced that What Apple’s sheath most of the other companies in the Silicon Valley were the employees. “We build the products we want to use ourselves.” If the family use the devices, we finally have a vested interest in ensuring that the personal data are best protected as possible. “I think this is a special feature of Apple. Our business model is completely different, it reflects our values. We sell things to buy people, and it is our goal to make this even more desirable. We don’t care how much time you spend with your device. We just want to make a valuable contribution in your life. That’s all.”
Apple makes the majority of its revenue from the sale of devices, primarily the iPhone, while competitors such as Google to earn the lion’s share with tailored Online Ads.
Apple boss Tim Cook on privacy: “The free market is not here to work,” AFP
Repeatedly makes it clear Federighi in an interview that his company will not collect user data or even sold. “We as a company have no interest in discovering everything about them. We think, your device should adapt to you personally, but that is solely in your hands. In doing so, Apple is not analyzed but their behavior – we have neither an incentive nor a moral need.” This setting had internalized the employees deep, so Federighi. “Privacy is fundamental in everything we do. This attitude is what drives us.” In the development of new products privacy-Considerations “at the beginning of the process, never at the end.”
Apple uses in its own Apps and services a variety of procedures to protect the privacy and to conceal individual identities. The map service Maps encrypted about the route information, the pre-installed Safari Browser blocks advertising trackers. In the messages App, Apple is working with the so-called differential privacy. The aim is to identify General Trends, without individual usage patterns to disclose. In this way, services can be optimized without the company knows the preferences of each user.
“centralization we consider to be a fundamental threat”
is A common accusation that Apple is a cabinets for its high standards of data protection function scope of applications. Therefore, about the voice assistant Siri will be the competitors ‘ Alexa (Amazon) and Assistant (Google) below. The resist Federighi speaks decided: “If we develop a new product, is one of the first questions, how we deal with customer data, how we ensure privacy, the user does not restrict the experience. This is a really exciting job.” You mean sometimes “a few extra hours, but it’s worth it,” says Federighi.
Federighi and his Team emphasize that Apple’s applications are the same as the competition. However, Google’s Assistant is better than Apple’s Siri. Also Apple’s map service is not without controversy: While he provides in the United States part better results than the competitors, in many countries – including Germany – in the case of the users often Google Maps is the first choice. And also, Google’s photo service is in terms of facial and object recognition as superior.
Federighi don’t want to tap into, in turn, to other corporations, however, the private data of the users to make their own services better, and the Artificial intelligence smarter. This is not even necessary, says the 50-Year-old: “There are so many publicly-accessible databases with pictures of faces, dogs, trees, mountains. I don’t need to use the libraries of our customers, in order to get pictures of dogs and mountains. If I want to know how people speak, in order to optimize the speech recognition, we use sources such as Podcasts. In some cases, we would shop for such data, such as photos from images, databases, professional agencies, rather than to the private data of our customers to access. Belong only to them.”
By ever-faster processors, Tablets and Smartphones are now able to complete tasks directly on the device, which a few years ago, the support of the Cloud would have been needed. An example of the face detection in the photos App, which works completely offline. “We use all possible technical means, to have so few data collecting as possible. You should remain on the devices. And if you need to but in the Cloud, only you hold the key to Unlock, and not we. The centralisation of personalised information, we see as a fundamental threat, whether by Apple or anyone otherren. In order to protect the privacy of the users really, it must be ensured that the data is not even collected in the first place and together in one place.”
intervention in the privacy of San Francisco prohibits the use of face detection for AFP, The answer Federighi, the Google-in-chief
privacy is a topic that not only Apple occupied. Also, Google and Facebook jumped in the last few weeks on the train. Mark Zuckerberg said: “The future is private”. Google introduced a smart speaker with Display, with built-in face detection only locally on the device. On the development, says Federighi mentioned: “I am delighted that firms within a few months, so be positive to privacy. I believe, however, that it is a more serious matter, the man is not in a few months, and with a couple of press releases to meet.” You must intensively take the company culture, its own values and the business model under the magnifying glass “and all of that changed overnight.”
Google boss Sundar Pichai wrote a few weeks ago, in an opinion article in the New York Times that privacy “may not be a luxury that is only offered to those people who can afford Premium products and services”. Although he named not explicitly an Apple, but there was no doubt to whom these words were addressed. Federighi will find the allegation baseless and declared: “Our goal is to develop products for every. Therefore, I do not believe in this luxury thing.”
Apple products are generally more expensive than similarly equipped Android counterparts. On average, Germans spend less than 500 Euro for a Smartphone, the cheapest Apple phone you get from 519 Euro, this is the two and a half year old iPhone 7. However, Apple is known to supply its equipment for many years with Updates. Most of the Android manufacturers emphasize, again, after less than two years of Support.
Facebook-exhibition F8 After data scandals, promises Zuckerberg the new beginning: “The future is private” DPA
“We have been focusing on privacy, as no one else has talked about it,” says Federighi. “There were a lot of years at Apple, in which we have in the Silent privacy focused. The Rest of the world has said: This is no longer the Post-Privacy Era, the people take care of it. It was unimportant and old-fashioned. But we have gone ahead and stayed on the Ball. Not because we thought that we would one day sell more products, but because we found it for our customers as properly.”
in the Meantime, the issue of privacy of Apple is used, but also to differentiate themselves from the competition. During the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the largest technology Show in the world, left the group in January a gigantic Billboard to install on the stand: ”What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.” An allusion to the famous Slogan of the Casino metropolis, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. And an attack against the competition, in the Congress centre, a few metres away, connected a Toaster and a Router with a built-in voice speaker presented.
Apple against authorities
Apple’s position on the issue of privacy was a wider Public for the first time in the year 2015, when the group refused, the iPhone of the San-Bernardino-assassin for the FBI to unlock it. Apple claimed at the time that you have not only no interest in, you should also be able to provide the authorities with access to sensitive information. There is no Master-key with which the group is able to unlock all of the data of its customers. Whether that’s true or whether it is a feint, can not be clarified beyond doubt.
Federighi defended this setting: “When I’m working in a power plant, I may have access to a highly critical System. For the society for the protection of these devices is of paramount importance. We know that there are very many motivated hackers who want to penetrate into this valuable store of information on our devices, be it for financial purposes, or because you simply want to do damage. That is why we are working very hard to secure these devices.”
One of Apple’s Central backup mechanisms is the so-called Secure Enclave: This is a hermetically sealed from the Rest of the system, a separate portion of the processor, in the extremely sensitive information such as passwords and biometric data is stored. For the first time, the Secure Enclave 2013 was introduced with the iPhone 5s, the first Apple Smartphone with a fingerprint Scanner. Since then, hackers were able to crack the System. The principle has proven successful and is now being taken up by other manufacturers like Google (Titan M Chip in a new Pixel-Smartphones) and ARM (trustzone). to secure
The device against the attacker, but even a loophole to incorporate results from Federighis doesn’t make sense. “It would be extremely difficult to protect against a possible misuse of malicious people in the future. In the end, we hope that governments will learn to appreciate the idea and realize that it is to the advantage of all if each of secure systems.” A noble idea, however, is a Trend in many Parts of the world in a different direction. Australia’s Parliament passed a few months ago, an Anti-encryption law. In order to ensure that all security authorities with the opportunity to gain by means of back doors, state, or Trojan access to digital communication. Also, the Federal government has been demanding access to encrypted Chats, in Whatsapp.
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With various hardware and Software measures Apple can lock down his devices against access from the outside. However, as soon as the users open an App, hit the door to other players. This data can be in style filtered off, like the recent Experiment of the “Washington Post” showed. Many of these Third-party developers to adhere to the rules of the App Stores, some Apps, however, were developed only as many of the sensitive data of the users of fish. A Problem is that there are both Android and Apple devices. Federighi is Back: “and again the developer take advantage of opportunities to obtain information, you should really not come.” The task of Apple would be one of the additions the developers to limit and to increase the level of transparency for the user, without overwhelming you.
“Some people want to seer what data you give away, and others do not at all think about it. Finally, the interest of the people seems to have in the topic increased. This is good.” Federighi himself is “optimistic” about the development. “The people were somewhat fatalistic, if you say ‘privacy is dead’ – I don’t believe in it. Rather, I think people understand the importance of privacy for a well-functioning society, and that we must invest, as a society, more and more energy to ensure this.”
The China debate
One of the most common points of criticism from privacy advocates, the fact that Apple is offering its services in China. A country where a certain amount of privacy-laws exist, the state has but in case of doubt, always the last word. Authorities can require companies to allow them access to data stored online. Many Silicon Valley companies to avoid in China, therefore, including Google and Facebook. Apple offers its devices and Online services. The China business is for Apple, meanwhile, is of fundamental importance.
Federighi sees this as no Problem: Through various practices, Apple does not want to ensure, therefore, that as little as possible data to be collected, and they should remain directly on the device. By the data will not land in the first place, in the Cloud, they had to be protected from the access of the authorities. And even if authorities get access to the data, these would be, thanks to the encryption unreadable, argues that the Software-in-chief.
Many data are encrypted completely, but not iCloud Backups, so Backups of the smartphone. Privacy advocates have been calling for for years that Apple is offering users this Option, at least. Although the company is in recovery could help breakdown then the user could be sure to be in the case of a possible Server intrusion not to become a victim of data theft.
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