Filip Novotny Apple launched today new section of its website dedicated to protecting the privacy of its customers. It states how it protects users from possible threats, summarizes its stance on cooperation with government organizations, and also advises on how to properly secure your Apple ID account.
Tim Cook himself introduces this new page in a cover letter. "Your trust means everything to us at Apple," the CEO opens his speech. "Security and privacy are central to the design of our hardware, software and services, including iCloud and new services like Apple Pay."
Cook further states that his company is not interested in collecting or selling the personal information of its users. "A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that if something is free online, you are not a customer. You are the product." This may be a little bit of a dig at Apple's competitor, Google, which, on the other hand, essentially needs user data to sell advertising.
Tim Cook adds that the Californian company always asks its customers if they are willing to provide their personal data and what Apple needs it for. In a new section of its website, it also now clearly states what Apple has or does not have access to.
However, it also reminds that part of the security work is also on the users' side. Apple traditionally prompts you to choose a more complex password and also to change it regularly. It also newly introduced the option of two-step verification. More information about him is given (in Czech) by the special article on the support website.
Below Cook's letter we find a signpost to the next three pages of the new security section. The first of them talks about product security and Apple services, the second shows how users can na protecting your privacy properly heed, and the last one explains Apple's attitude to information submission to the government.
The product security page covers individual Apple applications and services in detail. For example, we learn that all iMessage and FaceTime conversations are encrypted and Apple does not have access to them. Most of the content stored in iCloud is also encrypted and therefore not publicly available. (Namely, these are photos, documents, calendars, contacts, data in Keychain, backups, favorites from Safari, reminders, Find My iPhone and Find My Friends.)
Apple further states that its Maps do not require the user to log in and, on the contrary, tries to anonymize his virtual movement around the world as much as possible. The California company reportedly doesn't compile a history of your travels, so of course it can't sell your profile for advertising. Also, Apple does not search your emails for "monetization" purposes.
The new page also briefly addresses its planned Apple Pay payment service. It assures users that their credit card numbers will not be transferred anywhere. In addition, payments will not go through Apple at all, but directly to the merchant's bank.
As already mentioned, Apple not only informs, but also encourages its users to make their own contribution to the best possible security of their devices and data. It therefore recommends using a lock on your phone, security with Touch ID fingerprints, as well as the Find My iPhone service in the event of a lost device. Furthermore, according to Apple, it is very important to choose the right password and security questions, which cannot be answered easily.
The last part of the new pages is dedicated to government requests for user data. These occur when the police or other security forces request information about, for example, a criminal suspect. Apple has already commented on this issue in a special way in the past message and today he more or less only repeated his position.
In terms of maps, there are obviously hits on Google Maps and others... :) The problem is that, at least here, Google Maps is still a better source of information than Apple... :(
Everyone has a different experience, for example, google kept messing with me in maps for half an hour before I turned on apple maps and since then I haven't used anything else. Sometimes I wonder how accurate they are in our god-forsaken country ;)
But they have almost no POIs. In Google maps, I type colloquially as someone told me where to stop and the maps guess it and show similar names and there it is... when I type the slang name of a local pub in Apple maps, it looks like a pop, but they don't show anything... and usually don't respond not even the official name of the company... Google is way ahead in this :-(
Apple maps are very reliable for navigation, unfortunately their biggest weakness is photo backgrounds...