Apple’s new privacy page thinks different. It presents the company’s privacy info in plain English and in an attractive, easily navigable format. It’s almost as if the same ease-of-use and top-end design aesthetic that Apple’s products and software are famous for has now trickled all the way down to the privacy pages on its website.
In the format Apple has used, it’s easy to see at a glance what information Apple’s apps collect (or don’t collect), how that data is used (and how it’s not), and the steps Apple takes to make sure that your data remains yours.
Apple also offers a navigable transparency report that shows the type and number of government requests it has received over a certain time period. Some of the data is surprising; I’d have guessed that countries like the USA and China would be at the top in terms of government requests for device data, but it turns out that in the latter half of 2018, Germany came out on top, and by a wide margin.
Apple does still have its obligatory standard legalese privacy policy, but the rest of these features on its privacy sub-site go a long way toward offering its users the kind of transparency and easily-accessible information they deserve. Other companies—especially the ones making their money directly off of user data—should take note of what Apple has done here.
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