They are setting the stage for announcing the launch of their google now compete which they will sell as more secure and private (no selling your info for ads!) [0]
I agree.
Don't mean to be cynical but every public speech given by Tim Cook (and everyone else of high profile) is about setting the stage for something. Aka posturing. They have too much money, control, brand, power at stake.
And this isn't much different from Google blasting Apple for selling products assembled in sweatshops (not that google does that)...
I agree. Don't mean to be cynical but every public speech given by Tim Cook (and everyone else of high profile) is about setting the stage for something.
Apple is in the fortunate position that most of their profits come from hardware. With Snowden's publications, the security/privacy advantage is practically thrown in their lap. So, why not run with it? We customers only benefit (not only Apple customers, because this will put pressure on others).
As a side node, given Cook's sexual orientation, I am sure that this is an important issue for him personally as well. There are many countries where you can't be gay openly (yet), and digital privacy is a tiny part of the puzzle of protecting people in countries with less liberal laws.
Another way of looking at it is that they've built their business model this way and they're making the case why it's better for their customers and the right thing to do. Volvo likes to advertise the safety engineering of its cars. Is that cynical?
I'm not sure it'd be possible to make a good competitor to Now without tracking what someone does all around the web. That's sort of the point of it - the more it knows the better it works.
The most useful things I get from Now are travel info (mostly comes from email/calendar), sports scores (I have to set these up manually), flights details (again from email), deliveries (again email). So they can do quite a lot with just email and calendar access. If you use iCloud they already have these things and don't sell ads against them so you can get some of the functionality (imo the best parts) without tracking. What parts of Now do you think they couldn't do without heavy tracking?
They clearly couldn't do "new posts from sites you read" and "people who read the sites you read liked this article", which are very nice Now features. I suspect they'd struggle to do "recommended restaurants/museums/etc. near your current location" - Now seems to have figured out my restaurant price range (for example), and I can only assume that was through tracking.
And this isn't much different from Google blasting Apple for selling products assembled in sweatshops (not that google does that)...