"I Hate Working Here": Apple Overshares in Amusing Privacy Ad
Apple has launched an amusing spot focused on the importance of digital privacy. Utilising satire to get its point across, the ad shows people blurting out personal information in public that they'd most probably not want to share with the world.
"I browsed eight sites for divorce attorneys" shouts one person, which doubles up as a reference to Safari and its Intelligent Tracking Prevention helps stop advertisers that follow you from site to site.
Check out the spot below, and then a list of references further down the page.
Other references include:
Apple Maps
“My house is within 1000 feet”
Background: The Maps app doesn’t associate your data with your Apple ID, and Apple doesn’t keep a history of where you’ve been.
iMessage
“I hate working here”
Background: Messages are only seen by who you send them to. With end-to-end encryption, Apple can’t read your iMessages while they’re being sent between you and the person you’re texting.
Apple Pay
“The number on my credit card is…”
Background: Your credit and debit card numbers are hidden from Apple, and Apple doesn’t keep transaction information that can be tied back to you.
Apple Pay
“I purchased prenatal vitamins and a pregnancy test”
Background: Wallet and Apple Pay help hide what you buy. Apple doesn’t know what you bought, where you bought it, or how much you paid.
Apple Health
"My heart rate is currently 150, 151, 152, back to 150.”
Background: You control which information goes into the Health app and who you share it with. When your phone is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, all your health and fitness data in the Health app is encrypted. And if you use the latest versions of watchOS and iOS and turn on two-factor authentication, your health and activity data will be backed up in a way that Apple can’t read.
The campaign aims to highlight that not all technologies and business models are the same - Apple's business model and technologies are aligned to make the privacy of our users paramount.
Users can have smart devices AND privacy; compelling services AND privacy. You don’t have to give up your privacy and customers do have a choice. Apple says that it builds products that do both.
Apple claims that it make the best products on the planet. It doesn't build a detailed profile of everything users do — it doesn't read emails, messages, or web browsing histories so that third parties can market to users. Its business doesn't depend on monetising its customer's date.
That doesn't mean that your Apple device doesn't get to know you over time - it's just that Apple thinks that it shouldn't know you like your device does. In the design of its products, Apple prioritises users processing as much information on their, it challenges itself to collect as little personal data as possible, and it claims that transparency and user control are always front and centre.
All of these practices are built on the premise of strong security like passcode encryption which protects the information on users' phones. As customers put more and more sensitive data on their devices - not just photos but health and financial data as well - Apple has committed to continue to build even stronger data security protections so that its customers can trust their data is safe.
