The Electronic Frontier Foundation rates tech companies annually on how they handle their customer’s data. The 2015 report is out and, not surprisingly, Apple did well. The EFF explained:
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“This is Apple’s fifth year in the report, and it has adopted every best practice we’ve identified as part of this report. We commend Apple for its strong stance regarding user rights, transparency, and privacy.”
This emerging theme from Apple about protecting user data is only going to get bigger. Apple doesn’t make its money serving ads and it has no economic interest in collecting user data. Moreover, I spoke with several Apple engineers last week at WWDC and, universally, they were all personally offended by the idea of government and other third parties getting access to user data. This is more than a marketing thing. Apple, as a whole, appears disgusted with the way our personal data privacy rights are getting trampled. I think we are going to see Apple turning up the dial on this issue in hopes of getting the word out to consumers. To me this is a big deal. The question in my mind, however, is whether I’m an oddball or this will resonate with the public at large.