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More Users Trust Amazon and Google to Handle Their Personal User Data Than Apple, Survey Suggests

aplnub said:
I don't trust any of them. Apple has ruined their privacy high ground. At least FB and Amazon didn't parade around holier then though about it.
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H2SO4 said:
Exactly this.
They've tried stuff and had to backpedal, (what a way for experts to read peoples privacy wants in the wrong way). They've tried a few things and been caught, (and then greased their way out of it).
They have shown they are dishonest when it suits them - why do people think that virtue signalling means that they must be 100% privacy focused.
I'm still surprised that facebook is so high up though.
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I brought up how Apple is becoming more and more like the 1984 that they parodied in their 1984 ad. Even an Apple fan had to admit that they were always like that. They just did a better job of hiding it back then.

Then there was that patent where a wave length could be emitted to disable iPhones from video recording. An attempt to stop unauthorized recording (like concerts), but called out for potential abuse
 
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aplnub said:
I don't trust any of them. Apple has ruined their privacy high ground. At least FB and Amazon didn't parade around holier then though about it.
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I have never understood this logic. It’s okay to be a gangster so long as you are cavalier and unapologetic about it? Conversely, the company actually doing something about privacy gets raked over the coals for every misstep, real or perceived, even though this still puts them ahead of the pack?
 
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Users - "YOU JUST WANT OUT DATA TO SELL IT AND MAKE MONEY!"

Apple - "Why would we want to do that? We make more money by selling you expensive hardware"
Other tech companies - "*Cough*" shuffle. Avoids eye contact. Looks at feet.
 
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Unregistered 4U said:
Error margin +/- 4. Hmmmm
Apple's overall net positive score was 44%, lagging behind Google's 48% and Amazon's 53%.

44 + 4 is 49
48 + 1 is 49
53 - 4 is 49

So, given the margin of error, statistically identical. :)
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Nope.

Apple : 40-48%
Google : 44-52%
Amazon : 49-57%

Yes there's an overlap, but not statistically identical. Question - did you really think they were identical or did you know they weren't but you want to spin the stats in your favour? I'm curious about why people post obviously wrong information.

Personally I think Apple are the least likely to be interested in your personal data.
 
SvenSvenson said:
Nope.

Apple : 40-48%
Google : 44-52%
Amazon : 49-57%

Yes there's an overlap, but not statistically identical. Question - did you really think they were identical or did you know they weren't but you want to spin the stats in your favour? I'm curious about why people post obviously wrong information.

Personally I think Apple are the least likely to be interested in your personal data.
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Apple only overlaps with Google. There’s no overlap with Apple and Amazon as my bad math indicates LOL

Satistically, anything within or near the margin of error isn’t significant. It’s notable, certainly, but any company would be foolish to take any action based on this data. By this report, saying the difference between Apple and Amazon could be 17% is just as accurate as saying the difference between Apple and Amazon could be 1%.

And, stats are used widely for spinning results in the favor of folks that want to spin results. For example, why do you think the sample size was so small? Could it be that a larger sample size would NOT show the results they were looking for? OR would show a much closer percentage than they’d like to report?

ALWAYS examine the rigor of any statistics you’re provided. You may not learn anything about the topic being reported, but you may learn a LOT about the intentions of the provider.
 
Abazigal said:
I have never understood this logic. It’s okay to be a gangster so long as you are cavalier and unapologetic about it? Conversely, the company actually doing something about privacy gets raked over the coals for every misstep, real or perceived, even though this still puts them ahead of the pack?
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Yes, unfortunately common logic that has been used here. Peoples’ critical thinking skills have to be upped a notch.
 
There's two parts here. First is policies about how our data is used and who gets access. Second is the technical ability of the company to prevent data breaches.

I trust Apple most with the first part, but Google most with the second part.
 
Apple's problem is the same one Hamlet's mother observes (ironically): "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
 
dwsolberg said:
There's two parts here. First is policies about how our data is used and who gets access. Second is the technical ability of the company to prevent data breaches.

I trust Apple most with the first part, but Google most with the second part.
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If zero days are excluded where the vector is the phone itself. Both google and Apple have had their share. Apple got smacked for the release of nude photos from celebrities that were actually social engineering. A legitimate hack occurred in 2013. https://firewalltimes.com/apple-data-breach-timeline/ Google has had it share of server side data breaches as well. So for the second part, I don't think google is ahead of Apple...but that is my opinion.
 
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adamjackson said:
A few journalists have blocked traffic to Amazon's IP block on their computer and found the internet is basically not usable. This isn't a privacy violation in itself but it shows how much control Amazon has on the global internet.
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bottom line: not defending amazon in any way.

but by hosting content on AWS doesn't mean they control you in any way.

unless amazon reads the content of the virtual hard disk images / virtual machine memory, they won't know who is accessing what. 90+% of all traffic is TLS encrypted, so they will not be able to read the content of the communication. everyone has the freedom to use OS based disk encryption in their AWS hosted VMs, and this essentially means there is way to much effort for anyone to figure out what your VM is serving to the outside.

but opting in for any of their SaaS services - like database, object storage, basically anything that is application level gives them technical possibility to collect metadata on all requests. however this doesn't mean they are allowed to do that.

they are not the only option to host content or VMs. claiming they 'control' the global internet is like saying apple 'controls the global smartphone app market'.
 
Abazigal said:
I have never understood this logic. It’s okay to be a gangster so long as you are cavalier and unapologetic about it?
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Deleted response, too harsh.

I will just say that if anyone trusts any of the big companies privacy-wise, that's their problem. You just have to make sure what you want to stay hidden isn't seen by Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook...
 
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The reality is that Apple and Google both zealously guard people's data, because both companies see that data as vital to their business models. Google doesn't sell your data (despite the feelings of the average MR forum poster). They sell targeted access through targeted ad space. Selling your data would destroy their business.

People trust Google with data because they understand how that data is being used. They get ads for stuff based on their Google activity instead of random ads. In exchange, they get secure services. Nike doesn't get access to your emails. They pay Google to serve ads to people who seem interested in shoes. Nike doesn't get access to your Google Drive files. Nike can't see your calendar events. Nike can't see your Google Sheets. Because Google data is reasonably secure.
 
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the headline is as good as saying mcDonlds make them best hamburgers,

screw that!
google was horrible and should have been shut down in 2012
while amazon is just pure crap
apple still has an ounce of decency left
 
TheSapient said:
The reality is that Apple and Google both zealously guard people's data, because both companies see that data as vital to their business models. Google doesn't sell your data (despite the feelings of the average MR forum poster). They sell targeted access through targeted ad space. Selling your data would destroy their business.

People trust Google with data because they understand how that data is being used. They get ads for stuff based on their Google activity instead of random ads. In exchange, they get secure services. Nike doesn't get access to your emails. They pay Google to serve ads to people who seem interested in shoes. Nike doesn't get access to your Google Drive files. Nike can't see your calendar events. Nike can't see your Google Sheets. Because Google data is reasonably secure.
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If only more people could think more with logic like you do. People also forget that they can turn off even targeted (and anonymous) tracking without even having to log in to their Google account.

Not saying that they are the heroes of privacy, but they do more in this space than what most people believe - because most people don‘t like to have their mind changed.
When it comes to advertising, I think they are the most privacy-focused advertising business partner and if sou want the web to be „free“ and „open“ and not to mention safe, I firmly believe we will need their help.

Amazon however seems to be a different story though, I have a bad feeling about the lot of what they do. But also, and most importantly, it‘s purely biased when it comes to me because I did not invest much time into research to back my accusastionn.
 
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adamjackson said:
It's good to see it visualized this way. The No opinion category is what put Apple behind Amazon which means not enough people know how massively intrusive Amazon is and how massively privacy conscious Apple is by comparison.

A few journalists have blocked traffic to Amazon's IP block on their computer and found the internet is basically not usable. This isn't a privacy violation in itself but it shows how much control Amazon has on the global internet.

EDIT: here's an article back in 2019 - https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-was-impossible-1830565336
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Once you correct for the no-opinion responses, the list comes out a bit differently:
  • Amazon 57%
  • Apple 52%
  • Microsoft 51%
  • Google 51%
  • Youtube 40%
  • Instagram 24%
  • Facebook 22%
  • Whatsapp 22%
  • TikTok 16%
Interesting that all three of the Facebook/Meta brands are toward the bottom, while more people trust google than youtube
 
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I think it comes down to transparency. Everyone knows Google mines their data for ads but they are pretty transparent about it and in return you get all Google's cracking web services. It's more of an exchange to be honest.

Any data Apple collects is for their own benefit even if 3rd parties are blocked from it you have effectively paid Apple hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars to let them and in return you don't really get much back that you hadn't already paid for. It's not like Apple have quality web services. iCloud.com is a bit of a joke.
 
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As a converted Apple user, the bar chart is upside down. Trusting Google or Facebook is like letting the fox have free run of the hen house. Apple should be on top. Sometimes I grinch about the privacy and security that Apple offers me but then I am an old man and grouchy by nature. I trust Apple First.
 
SFjohn said:
I’m aware of this as my partner is working for a competitor to Cloudflare. The idea of the internet was to be a truly distributed platmorm. The reality is that 1 company can bring the world to it’s knees if it wishes, or if China’s cyber warfare program does it for us.
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I don't think bringing down AWS or Cloudflare would be anywhere near as bad as you think it would be.

Within a few weeks, the companies with their own Ops teams will have done a new deployment to another cloud provider and changed configurations to stop relying on AWS or Cloudflare.
 
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