Apple Drops Out of Top 20 Most Trusted Companies for Privacy

ghost187 said:

Lol, a company that measures people's "perception" of privacy. Who funds these people?

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They are a company. Like many out there that offer consulting, etc. "Who funds these people" - seriously? Who funds Gartner or Forrester or IDC? They have clients.

Here's more about the organization. If you were really serious about learning more about the report or organization - it's a google search away.

http://www.ponemon.org/about-ponemon

Oracle1729 said:

Don't worry about it, when it happens you'll know. But you'll be in a boat with so many millions of others that knowing still won't make you care.

Just relax and go back to your content consumption with the other sheeple.

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rmwebs on reply number 7.

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Wow how smart you must be Firstly, at what point did I say I trusted anyone? This is the internet. You'd be a brain dead idiot to trust Apple, Google, Microsoft, heck even MacRumors.

My point remains, despite your feable 'sheep' comment (which by the way still didnt answer the question I put forward).

Lets look at a hypothetical situation:

Google.

We already know that (unless you opt out) Google log your search history and browsing habbits (on sites that have adsense or analytics). So from that they can build a sort of profile saying "hey IP address 123.456.789.000 using Safari seems to like looking at sites about Tennis." Then if you're loggec in it can track it back to your Google account.

Now, obviously there isnt someone sitting there going through this info checking up on people as that realistically would be impossible.

So, at the point, Google knows that you like Tennis and uses it to show ads for local tennis shops, tennis gear, etc.

Thats it. You've hit the dead end right there.

There is nothing else that information has ANY use for. Google dont sell it - we know they dont. The same as Apple dont sell info collected on iAds, and Facebook dont sell info on your likes.

Selling the information would actually be detrimental to their own business plans. Why sell it to someone once when you can license it in a way that doesn't violate your privacy? All they do is get an advertiser to pick targeted keywords, then if a keyword matches one of the keywords built around your habits, it shows the advert in hope that it'll be relevant.


So. I'll ask the question again in a slightly different way just in case people still dont get it.

Google knows you like Tennis, and use it to show Tennis ads to you. Why is that a problem? At what point is that putting your life in danger, or causing distress to you? It's no different to sticking an advert for a taxi company at a bus stop.

If you're really that paranoid about your personal info that you avoid the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple you really shouldn't be on the internet.

Maybe you shouldn't be on MacRumors. After all they use viglink, like most forums - Viglink knows you like Macs, and a smaller company are much more likely to get away with doing something dodgy with your info than a company that has the eyes of the world watching them.

weezor said:

And their annoying data collecting popups don't even have a X or cancel button. A couple of days ago they asked me for my real name on youtube and the only way out was closing the whole page.
Added to this, there is no way to stay logged into youtube and not be logged in on google search as well. I don't want all my data from both of the biggest internet resources do be associated with each other.

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Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

I suppose you're right, Google definitely deserves to drop lower in the trust ranks... I'm really just shocked they were ranked so highly as recently as last year.

rmwebs said:

Bit of an uneducated view point there given that neither Facebook or Google sell any information

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Isn't it FB that was reported recetly to be trialing some kind of paid-for spam?

samcraig said:

Take off your tin foil hat. It's an annual report. And it was a survey. The survey itself doesn't slam or comment on Apple's omission from the list.

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It's amazing isn't it? The excuses some people find to make it look like everyone is out to get Apple? It's almost like half the board is suffering from some kind of victim complex by proxy.

iMikeT said:

That's pretty much every Libertarian, Republican, and hard-right dingbat that I know.

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The only thing you can trust a typical company to do whatever is necessary to make money. If you don't see that, you need to rethink who you're calling a dingbat.

It is amazing to see how many nut crackers seem to think that information is being carried around by Company A just taking X$ and handing over a piece a paper to Company B with all of your personal information, with your name and adresses printed in big large letters at the top (And a map with a big red cross printed on the side - Which is why Apple is much more secure than Google! ).

These days these information is transferred in much different ways. You are just Subject Y, with a location, age and sex, which is used for marketing. Companies don't care who you are on a personal level, and thus it is irrelevant and useless for them to sell. They can't use it for anything. Really, smell the sanity people.

The most amazing thing I took away from this article is how on earth Facebook even entered this top 20 trusted companies....

Who cares, this is about how people perceive it, not how trustworthy they actually are. The latter is what I want to know

Any survey that only has 6,700 respondents and says the US Postal Service is more trustworthy than Apple is full of it.

cuencap said:

Any survey that only has 6,700 respondents and says the US Postal Service is more trustworthy than Apple is full of it.

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Interesting. Are you saying this to marginalize the results? Because I'm pretty sure the sample size for a lot of surveys about which phone people are likely to buy next, customer satisfaction, etc sample sizes are even less.

I love how people are trying to debunk the survey. Popcorn drama!

rmwebs said:

Not really surprising.

People slate Google when it comes to privacy, but in reality all the big boys adopt the same approach, Google are just able to make more cash out of it than anyone else due to their search business.

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Sure, sure... and those mobsters are really just nice guys not doing anybody any harm. Since they let you 'wet your beak' and see some user metrics via their tool on your site, I question the objectivity of your post. You're happy getting a piece of the action, good for you, bad for all of us. Poodle is perpetually on the wrong side of internet ethics and have been caught time and time again doing shady garbage. Further, if your websites lack a disclaimer that you use Google Metrics to suck visitor data and don't give detailed specifics about which data is collected, then you too are on the wrong side of user privacy as well.

Typically when challenged like this, the response will involve some kind of mental gymnastics involving the idea that "no data is really private on the internet". In that case, please post all your financial details, credit card numbers and account passwords to win the debate or else you get an automatic fail. You can also post up your site's admin password, email accounts and all your browser history for us to study. Man oh man... I really hope you stick to your guns. Who here wants a new Macbook Pro with Retina display? I hear those new iMacs are finally starting to ship too!

rmwebs said:

At the end of the day not a single one of them uses identifiable information, it doesn't get sold to anyone, its all used for advertisements and working out usage trends to tweak services.

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That's pure crazy talk. Google uses private data to generate almost all it's revenue and profit. They're not trying to tweak any usage trends on the net, they're trying to tweak their data sucking efforts for maximum benefit at the expense of individual privacy. Any perceived benefit you or the public at large thinks they are getting, is an illusion and a PR effort to obfuscate what they are taking. The smartest thing they ever did was come up with a dumb little cutesy name to cover their not so cute sounding methods.

It's also no coincidence that Android versions continue the same pre-school, cutesy imagery.
Google: "Thats not bulls**t you're eating, see it's called Jelly Bean and Gingerbread! Yum yum, eat it up!"

Why the continued calculated effort to make their software seem to 'taste' so good? Are people really easily fooled by totally superficial childish imagery... well considering my general lack of faith in humanity... I'll recuse myself from answering my own question.

rmwebs said:

The idea that someone like Google, Apple, and Microsoft, etc are secretly selling your personal details is just dumb.

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Or it's spoon fed Google PR. They have 0% credibility regarding past infractions, but thanks random web guy for trying to soften their image!

and MS have actual retail stores to sell tangible goods. If they were just like Google and selling personal info for revenue, why would they bother with the other stuff? But please don't thank me for the clarity, thank Captain Obvious.

ArchAndroid said:

Facebook - a company who overtly gives away your information to anyone who's willing to pay them.

Google - a company who covertly gives away your information to anyone who's willing to pay them.
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...which you agreed to when you signed up for their services. There is no such thing as free. We are the commodity. Im fine with that .

supercoolmanchu said:

and MS have actual retail stores to sell tangible goods. If they were just like Google and selling personal info for revenue, why would they bother with the other stuff? But please don't thank me for the clarity, thank Captain Obvious.

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Out of curiosity, what kind of information do you think Google has on you? Do they sell your home street address to security companies? Do they sell your name to clothing stores? Do they know what kind of car you drive? Do they know your favorite food?

Do you think there's a file somewhere in Google's databases with your real name, and all the information about you anyone would ever want to know down to your social security number, credit history? And they just...you know...sell it to advertisers?

supercoolmanchu said:

Or it's spoon fed Google PR. They have 0% credibility regarding past infractions, but thanks random web guy for trying to soften their image!

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Can you point any single infraction for selling or giving away data?

I believe this is to be expected due to the rapid rate of growth apple has seen over the last few years, this would be same with most tech companies I feel.

Renzatic said:

It's amazing isn't it? The excuses some people find to make it look like everyone is out to get Apple? It's almost like half the board is suffering from some kind of victim complex by proxy.

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You mean everyone isn't out to get Apple? It's not a conspiracy?

The horror!

The absurdity that an annual report by the Ponemon (or any other) Institute could rank an insurance company (especially a healthcare insurance company!) and American Express (!) amongst the MOST trusted companies in the world, is just one more demonstration of one of the fundamental epidemics devistating our society – to the brink of destruction.

The analytical ability of the average person surveyed (citizen) approaches 1/∞. A survey company well knows that they can get any result they want by simply tweaking the "questions". The number of historical examples that could be sited is huge.

Anybody who would take the time to do even the most rudimentary study would know that every company having anything to do with communication (read GPS) has been pummeled with accusations of corruption - based not upon any significant analysis by the media, but simple regurgitation of anything that they think might tweak their own ratings (and maybe a little salary tweak).

Lets face it, its those same "citizens" who in recent history just sucked up whatever they were fed and gave us Obama and company.

To quote the infamous Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, "The horror".

Would I trust United Healthcare over Apple? Are you kidding?

apfeljonas said:

Anyone else first thought that institute's name was Pokemon?

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I thougth it too.

AustinIllini said:

The only thing you can trust a typical company to do whatever is necessary to make money. If you don't see that, you need to rethink who you're calling a dingbat.

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It sounds like you're defending corporations, something Libertarians, Republicans, and hard-right leaning persons do. And if I don't rethink who or what I call a dingbat, what are you going to do about it? Brandish your shiny at me piece Mr. Texas?

applesith said:

So stupid. I don't know why people fear anonymous data collection when it's used for targeted marketing. I'd rather see ads and content relevant to my interests and activities than generic crap like when I watch TV commercials. Amazon does this quite well.

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A lot of people have different priorities than you.

Personally, I don't need targeted advertising to tell me what I want. I'm perfectly capable of deciding that for myself. When I want something I can search for it, and don't need it appearing on every website and email I see. Knowing that most or all of my information (even anonymous information) is kept private (or as close as possible) is well worth the small inconvenience of searching directly for what I already know I want.

iMikeT said:

It sounds like you're defending corporations, something Libertarians, Republicans, and hard-right leaning persons do. And if I don't rethink who or what I call a dingbat, what are you going to do about it? Brandish your shiny at me piece Mr. Texas?

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You've never been to Austin, have you? It's a liberal town that caters to big business. As a result, Austin is consistently the fastest growing city in the country with the best job market. Lots of California license plates from people moving out of your sorry state here.

I defend corporations as they have the right to make money at all costs and i trust them to do that and only that. That's why they exist. Unless the government forces a company to keep information private, I believe any corporation will sell information for money.

Also, don't give me that stereotype Texas-y garbage, I'm an Italian American from Chicago.

AustinIllini said:

You've never been to Austin, have you? It's a liberal town that caters to big business. As a result, Austin is consistently the fastest growing city in the country with the best job market. Lots of California license plates from people moving out of your sorry state here.

I defend corporations as they have the right to make money at all costs and i trust them to do that and only that. That's why they exist. Unless the government forces a company to keep information private, I believe any corporation will sell information for money.

Also, don't give me that stereotype Texas-y garbage, I'm an Italian American from Chicago.

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Shut downnnnn

samcraig said:

Oh for craps sake people - this is all about perception.

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It's also only 100k folks and no word on how they were selected. Could have been totally off who turned up on their site and thus there's no way to know if the people have actual knowledge about how each company works to protect them or had a beef with a company etc.

Plus look at the survey methodology. They are saying 'pick the 5 companies you think do the most to protect your privacy' out of hundreds of companies of all types including airlines, delivery services even the post office. So Apple dropping to number 21 could be merely that a majority of the visitors have never shopped at Apple and didn't put it as one of their five. Not that Apple is really worse than the others.

AppleScruff1 said:

You mean everyone isn't out to get Apple? It's not a conspiracy?

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Not anymore. Didn't you get the memo over at XDA? We quit doing the whole bring down Apple thing last week sometime.