Back in September, Tim Cook published an open letter in order to
address some iCloud
security and privacy concerns that had popped up. In the letter he said
that free online services treat you, the consumers, as product. In a
recent interview with Time magazine about his mission to get the world online
with Internet.org, the social network commander and chief, defended Facebook‘s
free/ad-supported business model.
The defence was against what he sees as charges that an advertising
business model is fundamentally not in line with customer’s interests. The way
he sees it, if Apple were truly in line with their customers then they would
charge less for their products. This is despite previously declaring his
respect for Tim Cook as a leader.
“A frustration I have is that a lot of people
increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being
out of alignment with your customers. I think it’s the most ridiculous concept.
What, you think because you’re paying Apple that you’re somehow in alignment
with them? If you were in alignment with them, then they’d make their products
a lot cheaper!”
This does seem like a back and forth verbal tennis
match between Cook and Zuck. (sorry) In the midst of the huge celebrity photo
hack scandal, that was linked to a Find My iPhone exploit, Cook said, ”A
few years ago, users of internet services began to realize that when an online
service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product. But at Apple, we
believe a great customer experience shouldn’t come at the expense of your
privacy.”
Cook didn’t name Facebook, in particular, but the
sentiment has been widely associated with Facebook. The Facebook founder is
holding his ground in this issue, saying that Facebook cannot fulfil the
mission to connect the world if it stops displaying advertisements and starts
asking users to pay for access instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment