This is security, for which I think nobody doubts Apple is good. The question was about privacy.
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Without security privacy means shit.
You can boot up Asahi
Block apple via little snitch
Boot SecureBlue on UTM
Etc
I don’t think that’s right. Apple does run an ad business, but it targets off App Store search history and basic account info like age and region, not the contents of your mail. It’d also be a strange move given they shipped Mail Privacy Protection, which blocks tracking pixels and proxies image loads. That feature wrecked open-rate tracking for the entire email marketing industry, which isn’t what you’d expect from a company selling email-derived profiles.
The fair criticism is that iCloud Mail isn’t end to end encrypted, even with Advanced Data Protection turned on. Apple holds the keys and can hand contents to law enforcement with a warrant. Real weakness, but a different thing from profiling people for ad revenue.
Do you have a source on the data broker part? Curious whether I’ve missed something.
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Security is required for privacy, but not sufficient. You also need a good data protection (compliance to GDPR is not enough to me).
Microsoft and Google have very good security. Try to hack into someone’s Google drive or MS OneDrive without phishing, and you’ll see. However, they have a terrible data protection. Even if they can prevent almost anyone to enter their fortress, their practice is a giant breach to privacy and they are themselves the prying eyes.
So very good security is great and needed, but not enough to speak of privacy.
The other way around is also true : having a thorough data protection for full respect of client privacy is required, but without security, privacy won’t be achieved.
That being clarified, Apple has a great security and seems to have a better data protection than Google or Microsoft, but to me, their data protection is still far from great.
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You’re right, I just assumed that the reason for refusing OpenPGP and WKD was the same as Google and Microsoft : scanning email contents.
Maybe it’s not the case for Apple. But if it were, it wouldn’t contradict that much the other moves you mention. Many service providers defend their users against ads except their own ad channels (Brave, now maybe Firefox, some alternative search engines…)
This article reveals something about Apple’s approach to privacy.