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As the world continues practicing social distancing, people are online more than ever looking for connections. On the first all-virtual season of Catfish: The TV Show, Nev and Kamie work together remotely to investigate uncertain online relationships and help uncover the truth.

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As the world continues practicing social distancing, people are online more than ever looking for connections. On the first all-virtual season of Catfish: The TV Show, Nev and Kamie work together remotely to investigate uncertain online relationships and help uncover the truth.

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Interview with the author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism"

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In a wide-ranging interview, the author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" talks about why people should pay attention to how big tech companies are using their information.

The author Shoshana Zuboff in 2019. "As we allow these companies to amass this huge scale of human-generated data," she said in an interview, "we're changing the nature of our society." Credit... Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press

It was a grenade lobbed into the tenuous peace between Apple and Facebook - a software update that explicitly asked iPhone users whether an app should be allowed to track their digital movements across the other apps and sites that they use.

Apple pitched the feature, App Tracking Transparency, as a triumph for privacy. But for Facebook, it was an attack striking a key source of revenue: the personal data of its users.

The dispute represents a further deterioration in the relations between the two companies and their chief executives, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook.

In a recent episode of The Daily, Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, asked a question at the heart of this conflict: "Do people care about privacy?" The answer, as he explained, will determine the conflict's trajectory - and the limitations on Big Tech's power in a largely unregulated, hypercompetitive fight for market dominance.

Listen to 'The Daily': Apple vs. Facebook

How a routine software update became a major battle in the long-running conflict between two of the world's largest tech companies.

Back to The Daily

transcript

Listen to 'The Daily': Apple vs. Facebook

Hosted by Astead W. Herndon; produced by Stella Tan, Michael Simon Johnson, Diana Nguyen and Eric Krupke; edited by Paige Cowett; and engineered by Chris Wood.

How a routine software update became a major battle in the long-running conflict between two of the world's largest tech companies.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Today, the story of how a seemingly routine software update became a major battle in the long-running war between Apple and Facebook. Astead Herndon spoke with our colleague, Mike Isaac, about what's at the heart of the conflict and why the stakes have become so high for both companies.

It's Tuesday, May 11.

astead herndon

So Mike, can you tell me about this thing that Apple premiered the other day? It seemed pretty small, but from what I'm gathering, it's not that small.

mike isaac

Yeah. So the other day, Apple rolls out this ad that seems pretty innocuous, I guess, at first glance.

mike isaac

There's this nice-sounding woman's voice telling folks, hey, we're going to introduce this new software. And you might start noticing this prompt on the iPhone when you open certain apps.

mike isaac

It'll say you can allow apps to track you, or you can ask them not to track you.

mike isaac

They basically walk folks through this idea that-

mike isaac

Some apps on the iPhone are building entire profiles of information on you and tracking your behavior across different apps rather than when you're using the apps themselves.

mike isaac

And what Apple is doing is essentially very kindly pointing out-

- ^archived recording (woman)^

That's why iPhone users will now be asked a single, simple question- allow apps to track you or not?

mike isaac

Here's a button that you can use that will put right in front of you when you open the app to turn all that off. And for the first time, you can find it without having to dig into your settings. And look how great it is that we're putting this in front of you.

mike isaac

And seems fine, whatever. OK. But over at Facebook, they start freaking out and losing their minds over this.

[music]

astead herndon

So why is Facebook freaking out?

mike isaac

I mean, because Apple is basically, for the first time, giving the millions of people that use iPhones a really easy choice to opt out of advertisers using their data to track them across the internet. And for Facebook, that's basically the entire business model of how Facebook operates. Facebook's whole business is tracking you across the internet to make the ads that are served to you the most accurate as possible. You can think of Facebook's actual customers as ad companies and advertisers who pay to place ads in your feed and my feed when we use the app.

astead herndon

Targeted ads have become a part of our lives. I think about how Instagram feeds me advertisements for sneakers and plants and matching jumpsuits because they've been tracking me across those other apps. So you're saying if I click this button, would that be saying that I no longer wanted that?

mike isaac

I didn't know you were a jumpsuit guy. But no, I think companies like Facebook, which owns Instagram, they say they track you in order to make your personalized advertising experience even better. And so you see the ads you want to see in your feed. What I think Apple is getting at here is essentially making that exchange more in your face, basically, saying, look, this is something that has been going on. If you want to opt out of it, that's fine, but you should at least have the choice to do so. So this fundamental thing can now go away with this software update and with the click of a button that people push when they open up the app. And that's existential. That's the whole ballgame for Facebook's business.

astead herndon

So that's how Facebook sees this move by Apple, but are they right? Should we think of this as Apple directly targeting Facebook?

mike isaac

I mean, I think so. Basically, this is the biggest in a long line of long-simmering back-and-forths between the company as they've been in a cold war for the past 10 years.

astead herndon

A cold war? I didn't know that. What do you mean?

mike isaac

So rewind back to 2010, 2011 era of Facebook and Apple coexisting with one another. At this point, they're far from enemies. They're actually pretty friendly. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg would go on these long walks in the apricot groves in Silicon Valley, and it was very- mentor-mentee sort of thing. I think Jobs was seen as an elder statesman at the time to young founders, especially like Mark.

Facebook is this up-and-coming company used by hundreds of millions of people. Apple has created the most popular consumer device used by millions of people. And they essentially have a kind of complementary relationship, really a symbiotic relationship. You can't use the iPhone without apps like Facebook, and you can't access apps like Facebook without a great smartphone to do it. And Apple was the one to provide it. And really, at this point, they seemed far from any sort of antagonism towards one another. But over time, they started kind of playing in each other's spaces.

If you remember 2010, 2011- this was the time that I moved from my Blackberry to getting an actual smartphone then. I remember I bought an iPhone specifically to start using Instagram, which is kind of embarrassing. But this was when everyone was making that switch. And Mark Zuckerberg, he realized, I don't own the operating system. We will always be subservient to Apple's rules or to Google's rules, and we need to change that. So he ends up developing their own smartphone, which Apple sort of is like, oh, OK, now you're in our business now. Or another instance was basically messaging. Apple's iMessage was used by hundreds of millions of people, and Facebook wants to be an owner of messaging services too. And so they start competing in little areas that didn't seem as obvious before.

astead herndon

So originally, these are two companies and two C.E.O.s that think of themselves as very distinct, have a good relationship. But you're saying there's a change in the industry that pushed them closer and closer to one another where they're now making services that they see as directly competitive to one another.

mike isaac

Yeah, 100 percent. Another thing that happens around this time is that Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, passes away. He dies of pancreatic cancer. And his successor, Tim Cook, his number two, comes in and takes over the business. And Tim Cook is a very different C.E.O. He doesn't feel that people's data and information should be combed through by advertising companies and data brokers who want to use that you serve you ads. And I think that these two companies that might have had a friendly relationship, that becomes a little bit icier, I would say. But I really think the crux of the turning point for these two companies came in 2016, 2017.

[music]

mike isaac

So Donald Trump was elected president at the end of 2016, and then slowly, information starts coming out about what role Facebook played in that election.

mike isaac

People start discovering, oh, Facebook was used as a conduit for misinformation around how Americans think about each other.

archived recording (reporter)

They say a Russian group posted more than 80,000 times during and after the election campaign.

archived recording (man)

A group that claimed to be part of Texas but was, in fact, paid for by Russians in rubles.

archived recording (reporter)

Those ads, with a price tag of $100,000, pushed divisive social issues from immigration to race and gay rights.

mike isaac

And then there's the Cambridge Analytica situation.

mike isaac

So back in 2018, The Times unearths what is essentially a data leak in Facebook's business.

mike isaac

Cambridge Analytica was this crucial moment where Facebook was essentially pilloried by the entire world for being just totally reckless with user data. And I think that really had an effect on Cook and on folks at Apple. I think that really poisoned their idea of what Facebook was. It's not this idyllic little company where they're just trying to connect the world and make everything pollyannish. I think it became a darker thing. And at that point, Apple decided not only is privacy important to us, we're going to make that a cornerstone of how we market ourselves compared to other companies like Facebook.

astead herndon

Can you explain why specifically Apple would care that Facebook was in this contentious moment?

mike isaac

I think there's the personal and then the professional. One, I think Tim Cook actually does have a distaste for Facebook's business model at its core. But I also think there's really a professional business reason for doing this. And I was talking to a Silicon Valley exec a few months ago, and basically, they told me, look, if your competitor is on the ropes like Facebook is, you take a punch at them. You take a shot at them. And essentially, you hit them while they're down because you can make your company look better at the same time. And I think there was part of Apple that recognized we have an opportunity here. And if we can use ourselves as a foil against, quote unquote, the invasive, data-hungry company that is Facebook, we can end up looking much better here. And that's exactly what they did.

astead herndon

So what does Apple actually do, then, to capitalize on Facebook's moment of weakness at this time?

mike isaac

So basically, Apple has these events every year where they preview their software. And one year, they trot out these new features. One of them is for Safari, their web browser. It basically says, we're going to kill off tracking cookies in Safari. What that means is essentially, if you use the mobile web browsers on Apple's phones, we're not going to let companies like Facebook or Google track you around the internet using those web browsers.

astead herndon

Thank you for explaining cookies. I've never understood that my whole life.

mike isaac

I did my job for one. Yeah. And that was definitely a big move. That was Apple saying, look, we're cracking down on tracking in our web browsers. Safari is used by millions, if not billions, of people who have iPhones around the world. The other thing that they do is- I don't know if you remember when Screen Time came out, basically the thing that tells us how terrible we are for being on our phone all week. They specifically introduced this product saying, we have a way to keep you on your phone less. And in the demo, I believe they used Instagram as the example app saying, essentially, you spent way too much time on Instagram this week. Maybe you need to chill out a little bit. And inside Facebook, people are like, what? What are you doing? Why are you targeting us? Where is this coming from? So they have these Easter eggs in their presentations and stuff and a side-eyed version of a tech fight for a little while, but then I think it gets more overt.

mike isaac

Tim Cook goes on MSNBC.

mike isaac

One of our colleagues, Kara Swisher, actually is interviewing him at this point and says, Zuckerberg is getting hauled into Congress, and they're getting essentially questioned for their role in the 2016 election and how they use data. And the host asks-

archived recording (kara swisher)

If you were Mark Zuckerberg, what would you do?

archived recording (tim cook)

What would I do?

mike isaac

And Cook, without missing a beat, says-

archived recording (tim cook)

I wouldn't be in this situation.

archived recording (kara swisher)

OK.

mike isaac

I wouldn't be in this situation. Basically-

astead herndon

Wow.

mike isaac

Basically, that's not us. That's not what we do.

mike isaac

We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right. And that's basically like saying, unlike Facebook, we actually care about your privacy.

astead herndon

That seems more explicit.

mike isaac

Right. And at that point, Mark Zuckerberg responds.

mike isaac

He goes on The Ezra Klein Show and basically throws it back in Cook's face and says-

mike isaac

The whole point of advertising is that we're making our service free, and you don't have to pay $1,200 or whatever exorbitant price to use our product, unlike some other companies in Cupertino, California, basically making the case that Facebook is the common man's social network, free to use, and everyone can enjoy it. Just be willing to be targeted by personalized advertising.

mike isaac

So they trade some more shots in the press. And then in 2019, both sides think they need to have a talk. They need to come to terms and come to a peace between each other. And every year, there's this retreat called Sun Valley that, basically, all the billionaires go to to commune with one another. And so Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg and their respective teams decide this is where we're going to hash it out. So they get together in this room with a small group of executives from both companies. And Mark basically says to Tim, what would you do in this situation? The whole world is coming down on us. What would you do? And Tim's response is essentially, I think you should delete every bit of information about people that you've collected outside of your main Facebook apps.

astead herndon

Wow.

mike isaac

Yeah. He's basically telling Mark, in so many words, your entire business model is busted. And you need to fix it by destroying at least half of it. One person said that Mark seemed stunned. The C.E.O. of Apple telling you that your whole business model is broken and wrong probably wasn't the best way to start out peace talks in this summit that they were supposed to have.

astead herndon

It doesn't seem like someone who's very interested in a peace talk to respond in such a fashion.

mike isaac

Right. And so the next thing that Tim Cook does-

mike isaac

-is announce this App Tracking Transparency feature.

mike isaac

-that Facebook feels, rightly, is targeted directly at Facebook and its business.

[music]

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

astead herndon

All right. So Mike, Apple premieres this new privacy initiative that Facebook takes as a direct statement of competition. What happens next?

mike isaac

Facebook starts really fighting back. For the past few years at this point, Facebook has been on the ropes. Apple has been the one throwing all the real punches. And Facebook essentially says, look, if you're going after our business, if you're going to the jugular at this point, we've got to do something.

archived recording (reporter)

Facebook just now publishing a blog post saying it's speaking up on behalf of small businesses, saying, quote, "we believe Apple is behaving anti-competitively by-"

archived recording (man)

This seems like a very perilous escalation that Facebook is pushing here. Maybe they have to because what Apple plans to do strikes at the core of Facebook's business model.

archived recording (woman)

What they're saying is that once you eliminate that kind of targeting, then the ads just don't become as valuable anymore, which is-

mike isaac

So Facebook starts talking to all its advertisers and a lot of the small businesses on the platform who buy ads on Facebook, basically saying, this is a huge deal. Bad things are coming for us. We need to push back on this. So it becomes corralling the advertisers and essentially creating this public P.R. campaign against Apple.

mike isaac

So Facebook is basically saying, we're standing up for small businesses.

mike isaac

Using our ad targeting platform on Facebook is good for the economy, and it's good for these small businesses that are on the ropes.

mike isaac

We should all be pushing back against the big, bad Apple at this point.

[music]

astead herndon

The idea that this multibillion-dollar corporation in Facebook is painting itself as a champion for small business seems kind of odd to me. It seems like it would raise some eyebrows. What are they doing there?

mike isaac

Yeah, you're not alone there. But Facebook does have an actual point. Small businesses make up the majority of sellers on their platform. Small businesses on Facebook do rely on ad targeting tools to basically sell themselves and market themselves across the internet, especially during the pandemic when some retail shops might not have otherwise been able to reach people. So to some degree, there's a point there, even if it's a very self-serving way of posturing themselves like Facebook is using. But I think the other thing that Facebook is trying to point out here is that this really isn't about privacy for Apple. This is really them just making a big power move.

astead herndon

What do you mean there?

mike isaac

Well, they positioned themselves as privacy advocates and warriors, but folks at Facebook are really frustrated because, for instance, Apple has an enormous business in China. Vast amounts of iPhones are sold in China, which arguably one of the most privacy-invasive governments and regimes on Earth, where the contract is that they monitor the behaviors of their citizens. They're able to control what types of speech is being said online. They can censor certain types of speech against the Chinese government. And one of the things that Apple even had to do to operate in China was concede to a rule the Chinese government made where iCloud data must be stored in mainland China rather than servers in the U.S. or abroad as well as the keys to that data stored in mainland China. So rather than perhaps pull out of China entirely, which is one way they could have gone, they essentially had to concede and say, this is how we operate. This is how we have to do it in order to stay here.

So just in operating in China, Apple is being hypocritical in and of itself, some Facebook execs would say. Another point is Apple has this humongous search deal with Google that has lasted for years. Basically, if you open up your iPhone, Google search actually powers a lot of the things underlying in Apple's software. So Siri is powered by Google search. So it can give you answers instantly because Apple just doesn't have the search prowess of some of these companies like Google. And Google is just as privacy-invasive as Facebook, folks would say. You're fine with getting in bed with Google, but for some reason, Facebook is the big bad guy here.

astead herndon

It seems as if they're saying, Apple is situationally looking the other way when it's an advantage to them.

mike isaac

Yeah, absolutely. And on top of that, you have Apple basically deciding to slowly beef up its existing small advertising business. Not many people know that Apple have an actual advertising business, but it's significant. It's inside of the App Store. You can essentially advertise against searches for apps inside of Apple's store. So it's not a huge business for Apple, but still, it's this thing where companies like Facebook see Apple cracking down on the types of tracking and advertising capabilities of other companies while simultaneously improving Apple's own advertising business. And they scratch their head. They say, what's up with that?

astead herndon

If Apple has these deals with Google and with China, if it's making this ad technology that is similar to what Facebook has, what then was the upside for them portraying themselves as a champion of privacy? Why did they make that choice if Facebook was going to come back and say, hey, but you're doing the same thing too?

mike isaac

I think at the end of the day, Apple's argument is stronger. It is easier for people to identify with, oh, hey, privacy is a good thing. I would prefer to be tracked less on my phone and in my activities than more. And Facebook's argument is just, frankly, more nebulous. We're standing up for small businesses. Therefore, we have to track you, or you shouldn't be provided the option to opt out of being tracked. That doesn't really track, so to speak, I guess. And so I think at the end of the day, Apple basically can wield this larger club of we advocate for privacy. We care about not monitoring your data for the most part. And the average consumer probably doesn't know or care about a Google search deal or the search ads in Apple's App Store that are pretty in the weeds and mostly cared about by businesses and ad tech people.

astead herndon

OK. So this is just a calculated marketing thing from Apple. And it seems in the way that you're describing that they might be pulling this off, that they are both appealing to a customer that, on the surface, cares about privacy with things like this new tool that they've introduced, while at the same time, they are expanding their businesses in ways that compete with Facebook, compete with Instagram, and help them make money on the other side even if it goes against those privacy goals.

mike isaac

I absolutely agree. And I the- this is something I've asked myself for a long time, this paradox of, do people care about privacy? Do normal folks who are using their computers or their smartphones or who aren't steeped in tech jargon all day like I might be- is this something that they actually are concerned with? My guess is that they don't like the idea of something tracking them across the internet. The idea that someone's watching you at all times is uncomfortable. I don't like that. At the same time, people are using Facebook and Instagram in record numbers. Facebook did- I want to say $27 billion of revenue in the last quarter alone. They're shattering records for user growth and revenue numbers every quarter. So there's this tension, I think, in consumers where we want privacy, we gravitate towards this idea that we shouldn't be tracked, but we also want the convenience and the entertainment that a lot of these apps bring. So I do think there's a tension in it, and I think Apple is capitalizing on that tension to some degree.

astead herndon

So it seems like the public will go as far as to click on that button and block these apps from tracking them in many cases, but not as far as to throw their whole iPhone away or get off the internet or the apps that are tracking them altogether. So Apple still wins, and their competitors still lose because of a single button.

mike isaac

I mean, I think that's right. The App Tracking Transparency prompt just rolled out very recently. Facebook is still in a watch and wait period, as are these other advertising companies. They want to see how people behave. The way that the prompt is framed, it's pretty probably likely that people are going to opt out of it.

astead herndon

It's like one of those leading poll questions that says, would you like this good thing to happen to you? Yeah, sure.

mike isaac

Exactly. Of course I do. And I think that's what Facebook is expecting- everyone to be like, of course I don't want to be tracked. And that's kind of what we're seeing already. There's a survey or two floating around that says most users on iOS are opting out of this tracking option. So I think Apple wins this round. What I'm curious about are the fights to come.

astead herndon

What are some of those?

mike isaac

Yeah, look, these companies fight each other in a lot of different grounds. Messaging is one of them, gaming, podcasting. I think one big one that is a real question mark is V.R. and A.R., virtual reality and augmented reality. Both Apple and Facebook have secret wings in which they do all this high-tech development. And I think that's going to be the battle of the next 5 to 10 years for both of them. And that's still very much up in the air. All of the tech companies are essentially converging into this one area in which they compete with one another. The days of 2010, 2011 where they happily coexisted as friendly companies where the C.E.O. of Google might sit on Apple's board, and they all were friendly rather than frenemies or even outright enemies, those are long over.

astead herndon

Why did that have to change? Everyone was making a ton of money. Everyone was growing their business. Why was that not satisfactory?

mike isaac

I think about this a lot. I feel like it's really fundamental to how Silicon Valley operates. I think everyone loves to compete. If you are not expanding into a new territory, that means your competitor is, and you're ceding territory. All of the companies in Silicon Valley basically see a space and go after it. And if you're not doing it, that means someone else is. It says something about Silicon Valley. It says something about capitalism. It says something about how these C.E.O.s think and act. But competition is really the only code I think these C.E.O.s out here really live and abide by. And there's no real rules around it except for you compete to win. And they all just respect that as that's how it is out here.

astead herndon

Right. I'm asking why was it unsatisfactory to each maintain the slice of the pie, and you're saying that Silicon Valley is structured that- our economy is structured in a way where these folks want the whole pie.

mike isaac

Yeah, go big or go home.

[music]

I don't want a slice of the pie. I want the whole pie. That's exactly what they're saying.

astead herndon

Thank you, Mike. I appreciate your time.

mike isaac

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

[music]

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today.

Weeks of unrest in Jerusalem turned into a wider conflict on Monday when militants in Gaza fired rockets toward the city, and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes. Officials in Gaza said that at least 20 people were killed by the Israeli counterattack. The violence is tied to an attempt by Israelis to evict Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem to make room for Jewish settlers.

[non-english chanting]

For many, those evictions have become a symbol of the broader historical battle between Israelis and the Palestinians and since April has prompted angry clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the streets of East Jerusalem.

Today's episode was produced by Stella Tan, Michael Simon Johnson, Diana Nguyen, and Eric Krupke. It was edited by Paige Cowett and engineered by Chris Wood.

[music]

That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

After the episode aired, we called someone who thinks deeply about both privacy and the economic forces behind this competition: Shoshana Zuboff, author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." In the following interview, we ask Ms. Zuboff about the significance of this update in regards to privacy protections long term, the prospect of platform regulation and her vision for a less-extractive digital future.

Our conversation has been condensed and lightly edited.
In your book, you describe personal data as the primary source of economic power for platform companies like Facebook that monetize the intimate details of our digital lives. How significant is App Tracking Transparency in limiting that power?
It's significant. But what I think a lot of folks reading the headlines perhaps don't understand is that what this App Tracking Transparency notification does on your iPhone is it limits applications from tracking us across to other applications and across devices.

What this does not do is prevent these very same applications, including Facebook, which is the big whale in this discussion, from collecting data within their own application. This is a massive surveillance empire worth hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. But we call it an app.

And App Tracking Transparency has no bearing on Facebook's, or any other application's, ability to continue tracking you, collecting every aspect of your behavior, your activities, your thoughts and feelings.

So, yes, it does take a big bite out of some of the things that they currently do, especially as they reach for this rich diversity of data, which is so important to them. But does it limit their ability to illegitimately convert our lives into data, which they then declare as their private property? No.
Do you think of this as a turning point?
The jury's still out. I think that what this does is it puts Apple at a crossroads at a new level of intensity.
Why does it matter that these big tech companies can mine personal data for profit?
As we allow these companies to amass this huge scale of human-generated data, we're changing the nature of our society.

Because, first of all, we're allowing them to create these huge asymmetries of knowledge about people. Instead of this being a golden age of the democratization of knowledge, it's turned into something very different from what any of us expected. The last 20 years have seen, especially the last decade, the wholesale destruction of privacy.

And operationally, what happens is they get to a point where they know so much about us that they can fashion targeting mechanisms. We're not just talking about targeted ads. We're talking about subliminal cues, psychological microtargeting, real time rewards and punishments, algorithmic recommendation tools and engineered social comparison dynamics.

We have seen the scourge of disinformation on social media, we now know from research, driving a huge number of unnecessary Covid deaths because of disinformation campaigns and also having a huge role in producing the seditious tragedy of Jan. 6.What is so important for folks to understand is that these are all connected points in one process. And the process is called how knowledge becomes power.

Apple now has over one billion active iPhone users. Are you concerned about the company's growing control of our means of information access? In what ways does Apple uphold or contradict its stated motto that "privacy is a fundamental human right?"
I'm deeply concerned about it. Apple is the wealthiest and most powerful corporation, certainly in modern history, perhaps in the history of capitalism. And Apple now exerts unilateral, essentially unaccountable control over critical communications infrastructures, by its complete control of the operating system for its smartphones and other devices.

I think it's important for people to understand that Apple is not a government. Apple is a company. It's a corporation. And in a corporation, C.E.O.s come and go, boards change their membership. Business cycles and business crises occur. And today, Apple can look privacy preserving. And a year from now, we could be having a conversation about how Apple has reneged on all of these privacy values because there's an economic crisis, and with a new C.E.O. and a different board, Apple completely changes.

I had a data scientist who said to me the other day, "Look, the underlying norm of all software and apps designed now is data collection." For all intents and purposes, all of them are designed to engage in surveillance.

Apple still makes the majority of its revenues through its sales of iPhones and other devices. Nevertheless, an increasing portion of its revenue comes from services, and a big chunk of services is selling apps. So even if it's not a surveillance capitalist, it is a powerful enabler. A powerful accessory to this crime of surveillance capitalism.

And, of course, there are other ways in which Apple and Mr. Cook really violate the principles that he so eloquently states. Apple in China is obviously a huge example of that. Apple's relationship with Google. So Apple is deeply compromised.

The question in my mind is now under the spotlight that Mr. Cook has chosen to shine on himself and this corporation: Are they going to move to truly fill the shoes of what it would take to be a privacy god, or are they going to continue to sort of fudge this along and play both sides?
But just to clarify, do you think Apple is actually interested in preserving privacy, or do you think the company sees the introduction of updates like App Tracking Transparency as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage over Facebook?
I don't think we should ever expect a corporation to do anything that is not self-serving. Corporations are, by definition, self-serving.

They've already made it clear that they're looking at a way to expand their own advertising model, which is different from online targeted advertising. They're putting down the elements here of an alternative advertising paradigm. This is an opportunity for that new paradigm to now converge with their stated values and not rely on massive scale collection of human generated data in secret.
What would you like to see Apple doing differently?
Here is a historic opportunity for Mr. Cook and Apple to say, "We are going to become the hub for an alternative ecosystem." This alternative ecosystem is waiting for leadership.

Apple is the corporation that can provide that leadership, and it can immediately form alliances with other large, medium and even smaller companies to found an ecosystem where the whole investment profile changes. Investors are ready for this because investors are anticipating regulation that is going to take a bite out of surveillance profits.

And that means Apple has a golden opportunity to start with its own app store. Most purveyors of products feel that they have a responsibility to sell products that are safe. Apple could finally take responsibility for what it sells in its App Store and say we are only going to sell applications that observe privacy-preserving principles. It can help developers on alternative models of monetization. It can work with investors to develop alternative models of investment.

Apple could become an actual collaborator with lawmakers, making personnel available so that lawmakers and their staffs have a forensic understanding of the kind of enforcement operations new regulations are going to require.
How do you feel about the regulatory possibilities that are emerging at this moment?
I feel great about it. What the E.U. is doing is really taking us to the frontier of the regulatory effort, and I think of it as really something that we have to achieve in this decade or in the third decade of the digital century.

Over the years, you know, we've kind of had to flinch a little bit when we watched our elected officials interrogating the tech executives because they seemed so outmatched. Well, those tables really have turned. And in March, what we saw for the first time was congresspeople that really have grasped the economic model here and the unaccountable power that has accrued to these companies. And for the first time, we heard them saying we understand this information is a byproduct of your economics. And this is going to end and we're going to end it.
Apple's products are expensive. Is there a premium on privacy that only some can afford?
Android, of course, is by far the dominant smartphone in most countries. We see people who can't afford privacy. And the idea of privacy as a luxury is a profoundly intolerable idea.
Can you talk about how the pandemic has empowered these tech companies in their data collection?
What's happening in this remote education space now is truly frightening.

The huge irony here is that the outbreak of the pandemic was exactly the same time frame in which the New Mexico attorney general filed his class-action suit against Google Classroom, citing its illicit data extraction practices aimed at children.

Now you've got this whole sector called school safety technology. And then another sector called proctoring systems, which are these for-profit companies that attach to Google Classroom. When you dig into what these systems are doing, they're being paid by school systems, school districts for these services and, the so-called safety systems, they're tracking everything from notifications from social media, email files, chats, posts, messages, all documents, anything to do with the remote schooling activities. And then the proctoring systems, they're doing facial recognition, gaze and eye movements to track attention. They're producing what they call "suspicion scores." They're also taking microphones. They're taking cameras. They're insisting that cameras record your surroundings and broadcast that to the proctor.

And students and their families have no pushback because they're saying that students can't even access the data. They're not even doing a performative statement where they're agreeing to limit retention or third party sharing. They can just do whatever they want.
And during the pandemic, this data collection touches almost every facet of our lives, from remote work to school to socializing. Do you feel like that ubiquity is in some ways immobilizing?
I feel the ubiquity is a vehicle for spreading resistance. Big, professional polls [are] showing this decidedly is not the end of "techlash." It was at least some confirmation for my hypothesis that the more we're exposed to it and dependent on it, the more that nexus becomes a vehicle for precipitating resistance, repugnance and revulsion.

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Shoshana Zuboff Explains Why You Should Care About Privacy

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In a wide-ranging interview, the author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" talks about why people should pay attention to how big tech companies are using their information. It was a grenade lobbed into the tenuous peace between Apple and Facebook - a software update that explicitly asked iPhone users whether an app should be allowed to track their digital movements across the other apps and sites that they use.

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Your apps know where you were last night...

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Your apps know where you were last night...

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Interesting article on location tracking

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Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret (Published 2018)

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Dozens of companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds. They say it’s anonymous, but the data shows how personal it is.

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The dangers of talking to strangers

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A series of articles on how to regain control of your privacy online

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While today is the final day of our Five Days of Privacy, the strategies we discuss in this series of posts can and should be used year-round. In describing different ways to protect our privacy and security, we focused on elements that are freely available and realistic for people who aren't technology professionals. In the long term, we need to carefully assess what we want to protect and why, but in this post we summarize some easy steps pulled from the recommendations we discussed earlier this week.

For people interested in the details, we covered these topics on Days One through Four:

Conversations about privacy and security often focus on technology and give scant attention to the human, non-technological factors that affect personal privacy. In this brief post, we will cover some of the personal choices we can make and technical options we can use to take control over what we share and with whom we share it. This post is not comprehensive, but it provides some clear steps we all can take. We also attempt to ground the choices and options we recommend with additional context. When we talk about protecting our privacy, we need to consider what we're protecting -- and from whom we're protecting it.

Simple Steps

When we discuss privacy, we often become too focused on the tools rather than on the behavioral shifts required to use the tools well. At the same time, when discussing how to improve privacy and security, we often get stuck in the details and fail to acknowledge that we all can do simple things to increase the control we have over our privacy. This post goes into detail well beyond these simple steps, but using these steps as a starting point would be a marked improvement for most of us.

Easy, free steps to protect our privacy start with using these browser add-ons when you browse the web:

Use alternatives to Google for search: Use Duck Duck Go, StartPage, and/or Disconnect.me. These search engines minimize tracking and, when used in conjunction with add-on tracking blockers, help sidestep issues related to filter bubbles.

Whenever possible, set up two-factor authentication to protect accounts.

When using your phone or tablet, these free steps can increase your control over your privacy:

Use Signal to send texts and make voice calls.

Turn off wireless, Bluetooth, and location services when you leave your home. Only turn them on when you need them.

If you use an iOS-based device, use Firefox Focus to block tracking.

Take these steps that are slightly more complex and still free:

Block JavaScript (adds additional protection but can add additional complexity; see options for both Firefox and Chrome).

Use Tor when browsing for sensitive information.

Delete cookies from your browser.

Try three additional options that add privacy protection but are not free:

Use a virtual private network, or VPN, when browsing the internet from your computer, phone, or tablet.

Use a privacy screen. This will help prevent people from reading over your shoulder.

Use Spider Oak for encrypted cloud-based file storage.

A final step we all can take involves cleaning up the old files we have in our online file storage and deleting old emails we have stored online. No one needs to be a data hoarder. Setting up a time each month to delete emails and files we no longer need, and to archive items we don't have an immediate need for, helps minimize the risk of old information becoming compromised.

Conclusion

It's easy to feel powerless when it comes to protecting our privacy. Companies, political organizations, and governments have a head start, and the fight to regain our privacy is often marked by distinct information asymmetry, where the organizations collecting, sharing, and storing our data know more about us than we know about them. However, as the Five Days of Privacy demonstrate, we have options. There are a broad range of concrete steps we can take now, and most of these steps are free and pretty low-tech.

As we continue to reclaim our rights to privacy, part of our work is normalizing behavior that protects privacy. If one person out of a thousand uses a VPN, that individual will stand out. If 200 people out of a thousand use a VPN, we begin to get some safety in numbers. Additionally, as more people use more privacy-protecting behaviors, we reduce the value of the data that is collected. If we pair privacy-protecting behavior with studying the companies that want to collect and use our information, we reduce the current state of information asymmetry. Reclaiming privacy is a choice. Sometimes it's not a convenient choice, but flossing, exercise, and eating well aren't always easy either. But when we make protecting our privacy a choice as an individual, we make it easier to protect ourselves and our communities.

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The Five Days of Privacy -- Day 5: Summary and Simple Steps | Common Sense Education

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While today is the final day of our Five Days of Privacy, the strategies we discuss in this series of posts can and should be used year-round. In describing different ways to protect our privacy and security, we focused on elements that are freely...

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Informative movie about how Big Tech companies use our data in conjunction with advertisers

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Watch The Social Dilemma | Netflix Official Site

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This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations. Watch trailers & learn more.

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“On this topic, it is easy to default to scary rhetoric about the dangers of "Big Brother" and "stranger danger." However, a balanced approach looks at both the rewards and risks of sharing information online with others. Online, students have amazing opportunities to interact, grow, and learn from each other. However, they should have a reasonable and cautious awareness of the serious risks associated with engaging in online activity, both from strangers and from third-party providers.” (Common Sense Media).

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Digital Citizen 2d: Digital Privacy (ISTE Standards for Students)

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR EXPLORATION, WATCH THIS! 

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR EXPLORATION, WATCH THIS! 

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Here are a few notes from me before you begin diving into the resources in this Padlet...

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A few notes before you begin diving into the resources in this padlet!

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GDPR - What does it mean for international schools?

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GDPR - What does it mean for international schools?

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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will bring major changes to how schools look after personal data. It may be reasonable to believe this EU-wide regulation only applies to organisations within the EU, but that is not entirely the case.

The regulation covers all EU nationals whether they are based in the EU or not. If you have students or staff in your school who are from the EU, or EU students on an exchange basis, it will require you to be GDPR compliant.

Related

What is GDPR?

Enforced from 25 May, GDPR will strengthen and add clarity to the current rules (the Data Protection Act) on how personal data is collected and processed.

The new legislation will give individuals greater rights over their own personal data. Under GDPR, individuals have the right to ask an organisation to delete all of the data which the organisation holds on the individual, produce it in a portable format or withdraw any previously given consent. This also applies to students, who if over the age of 13, can submit a subject access request for their data.

According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which will enforce the regulation in the UK, personal data is "any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier."

For schools, personal data could range from pupils' grades and attendance records to more sensitive information, such as biometrics.

A key aspect of the new changes is around evidencing compliance with the regulation. No longer is it sufficient to just comply with the rules, but your school must now be able to show how you comply. This will involve keeping records of all personal data processing and contracts with any third parties who process that data on a school's behalf.
Read our full guide to the new GDPR
Watch: An introduction to GDPR?

How it affects international schools?

International schools will need to comply with GDPR in the same way a school in the EU would, explains Mark Orchison, managing director at 9ine Consulting.

"They have the same obligations as any school within the EU so as long as they are processing the data of EU nationals, which most international schools will be," says Orchison. "They have to put in place the same protections as any other school or any other organisation that sits within the EU and that's under article three of the regulation."

"Under article three of the regulation, so long as you process the data of EU nationals and so long as the country in which you reside complies with international law, you need to be compliant with the regulation."

For example, an area in which an international school is affected by GDPR is in the event of a student exchange, says Orchison.

"If I am a school in Kenya and the kids from my school go to a school in France on a school trip, or vice versa, the school in France is going to ask me how I'm compliant with the regulation. If I am not compliant they can't share the data of the children who are coming on the school trip with me. Therefore, the school trip can't happen."

How organisations look after personal data is becoming a growing concern not just in the EU, but worldwide. With governments across the world looking at introducing similar legislation, it is worth getting up to speed with secure data protection processes, even if your school is unaffected by GDPR, Toks Oladuti, IT security professional, points out.

"For what is likely to be the handful [of international schools] which do not have to meet this requirement, it would be a sensible and responsible choice to engage in a compliance-like programme anyway," Oladuti says.

"The world of data protection is going through a global overhaul to strengthen the rights and protection surrounding people's data, with numerous new data protection legislations being enacted or drafted across world, including countries with an emerging or thriving international school market."

Watch: How to become GDPR compliant

Developing picture

As mentioned above, this is a general overview of GDPR compliance and we have gone into greater detail on all areas of the data protection changes on the Tes School Portal.

But you should also bear in mind that compliance will likely develop as GDPR comes into play, with cases reported to the ICO setting the standards of compliance. Tes will keep its information constantly updated so you have the most current picture at all times.
For more information on GDPR visit the Tes School Portal
If you're registered on School Portal: Click login in the top right-hand corner of this page and click on the My schools button and visit the Advice centre

Problems logging in? If your school is registered for School Portal but you can't see the My schools button contact your School Admin for Portal access.

If your school is not registered for School Portal: Request Portal access here
For full and up-to-date guidance on the GDPR visit the ICO website.

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GDPR for international schools: how is your school affected?

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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will bring major changes to how schools look after personal data. It may be reasonable to believe this EU-wide regulation only applies to organisations within the EU, but that is not entirely the case. The regulation covers all EU nationals whether they are based in the EU or not.

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New Report Reveals Inconsistent Privacy and Security Practices in EdTech

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New Report Reveals Inconsistent Privacy and Security Practices in EdTech

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Read the key findings and learn how you can support better student data protections.

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Read the key findings and learn how you can support better student data protections.

When determining whether an edtech tool is safe or secure to use with students, many school administrators and educators turn to the tool's privacy policy to help inform their decision. But what should we be looking for in a privacy policy? And what if we can't make sense of what we find there?

Over the past three years, the Common Sense Privacy Initiative has evaluated the privacy policies of hundreds of edtech applications and services. Using a comprehensive rubric based on existing federal and state law, as well as on universal privacy and security principles, the Privacy Initiative team gathered data on some of the most popular edtech tools being used in schools.

This data informs the Common Sense Privacy Evaluations, which help teachers, schools, and districts make informed choices about the technology they adopt in the classroom. In addition, the findings serve as a unique and valuable snapshot of the current state of privacy and security practices in the edtech space.

The 2018 State of EdTech Privacy Report represents the culmination of a three-year examination into how student information is collected, used, and disclosed. It evaluates the 100 most popular applications and services used in educational technology using two broad criteria: transparency and quality. What we found is eye-opening and underscores how challenging it can be for schools to make informed decisions about which tools to adopt.

Key Findings

Overall, we found inconsistent privacy and security practices and a widespread lack of transparency, meaning the policy's explanations of privacy practices were unclear, not mentioned at all, or contradictory. Nearly all the edtech tools we evaluated either do not clearly define safeguards taken to protect child or student information, do not support encryption, or lack a detailed privacy policy. Only 10 percent of the apps or services met our minimum criteria for transparency and quality in their policies with a designation of "Use Responsibly."

In evaluating 25 indicators for safety, privacy, security, and compliance, our research uncovered key findings in several important areas:

● Third-party marketing:Thirty-eight percent of educational technologies evaluated indicated they may use children's personal and non-personal information for third-party marketing.

● Advertising: Forty percent indicated they may display contextual ads based on webpage content, and 29 percent indicated they may display behavioral ads based on information collected from use of the service.

● Tracking: Among web-based services, 37 percent indicated collected information can be used by tracking technologies and third-party advertisers, 21 percent indicated collected data may be used to track visitors after they leave the site, and 30 percent indicated they ignore "do not track" requests or other mechanisms to opt out.

● Profiling: Ten percent indicated they may create and target profiles of their users.

● Data transfer: Seventy-four percent indicated they maintain the right to transfer any personal information collected to a third party if the company is acquired, merges with another company, or files for bankruptcy.

● Moderation of interactions and content: Only 11 percent indicated they moderate social interactions among users, if available. Additionally, only 14 percent indicated they review user-generated content to remove non-age-appropriate content, such as references to gambling, alcohol, violence, or sex.

● Visible personal information: Fifty percent indicated they may allow children's information to be made publicly visible.

To be sure, there are also areas where vendors scored well. We found, for example, that 92 percent indicated they use reasonable security standards to protect their users' information. In addition, 65 percent affirmed that they do not sell, rent, lease, or trade users' personally identifiable information. That said, 33 percent were non-transparent on this critical issue.

What Can Educators Do?

These findings are troubling, but they also serve as a rallying cry for action. Educators can be a critical voice in the movement for change. If you're looking to be part of the solution, here are three ways you can support better student data protections:

1. Seek out companies that have responsible practices. The Common Sense Privacy Evaluations can help you identify which tools are clear and consistent in their privacy policies and which need to improve. If you represent a school or district, consider joining the more than 140 schools and districts that are part of the Common Sense Privacy Consortium and commit to using the privacy evaluations as part of your vetting process.

2. Put pressure on companies that aren't transparent. If you find out the developer of one of your favorite edtech tools isn't protecting kids' data or isn't clear about what they're doing, let them know. There are a lot of reasons a company might be missing the mark. Get in touch with them and share your school or district's expectations.

3. Advocate for student privacy legislation and enforcement. To set consistent standards for protecting kids' data, we need laws that hold companies accountable for their practices. Contact your legislators through Common Sense Kids Action to support policies that help kids, and take a stand against those that don't.

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New Report Reveals Inconsistent Privacy and Security Practices in EdTech | Common Sense Education

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When determining whether an edtech tool is safe or secure to use with students, many school administrators and educators turn to the tool's privacy policy to help inform their decision. But what should we be looking for in a privacy policy? And what if we can't make sense of what we find there?

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Help students develop skills to read and understand privacy policies and terms of use

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MediaSmarts' New Online Game Helps Youth Make Sense of Privacy Policies

When you sign up for a service on a website or use an application for the first time, do you read the privacy policy and terms of use thoroughly? Or, like most of us, do you click "I Agree" as fast as you can?

Don't feel bad: only 16 percent of adults[1] read these documents, probably because it would take about 76 days to read the privacy policies of all the websites that we visit in a year, let alone the terms of use[2].

Most of us do recognize, though, that these documents are extremely important because they spell out our rights, responsibilities and liabilities when using these sites, as well as the quantity and quality of our personal data that is collected and shared. There may even be special "hidden" clauses in some of these documents: for example, when - as an April Fools Day joke - a British online retailer added a clause to its terms and conditions giving them the right to claim their customer's souls, thousands of people unknowingly agreed[3]. This humorous example reiterates the importance of knowing exactly what you're signing up for before clicking that "I Agree" button.

"...like you know how they say 'incorporated by blah, blah, blah?' 'produced by...' I skip all that when I go into privacy policies. I read, like, the first paragraph. I'm, like, 'ok anyways'."

This is even more important when it comes to teens. Although we may think of youth as being "digital natives", MediaSmarts' research has shown that while young people are concerned about their privacy, few understand exactly what privacy policies and terms of use are and why they're important[4]. This is concerning, given that the online experiences of Canadian youth overwhelmingly take place in commercial spaces: only one of the 10 most popular websites for Canadian children in 2013 - Wikipedia - was non-commercial[5]. Furthermore, developing skills to read and understand privacy policies and terms of use is also particularly important for young teens because with many sites and apps requiring that users be age 13 or older, these may be the first legal documents they ever agree to.

The fact is many privacy policies and terms of use contain clauses that all of us, young and old alike, need to know about. For example, can the terms be changed at any time without notifying you? Or does the company permanently own the rights to any content you submit or post on their platform? It seems like an impossible problem: we need to know what's in these policies, but few of us have the time or the expertise to read them thoroughly.

MediaSmarts' answer to this is Click if You Agree, an educational game that helps children between the ages of 12 and 14 develop the skills and confidence to read privacy policies and terms of use instead of blindly clicking on the "I Agree" button. This engaging resource emphasizes knowing how to identify which sections of a privacy policy or terms of use are most important and relevant, as well as understanding our rights as consumers. Because these policies are often written in legal language that can be hard to understand, Click if You Agree also familiarizes youth with best and worst practices to watch out for, shows them how to spot "red flags" that tell them to pay particular attention to a section, and provides plain-language translations of common elements (prepared by Éducaloi, a Quebec non-profit whose core mission is to explain the law in everyday language). The good news is that many young people do try to read privacy policies and terms of use and some sites popular with children, such as YouTube and Minecraft, have adopted policy documents that are written and organized in a much more reader-friendly way. Click if You Agree encourages young people to advocate for best practices like these, while at the same time, helps them practice and build the skills and confidence they need to find information in more complicated documents.
Click if You Agree has been developed in HTML5 and plays on most modern browsers. You can find it on MediaSmarts' website here This project has been funded by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/educational-games/click-if-you-agree-grades-7-9, along with a Teacher's Guide and tip sheets to support its use as an educational activity.
[1] Internet Society, Global Internet User Survey 2012, 2012, https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/global-internet-user-survey-2012
[2] Madrigal, Alexis C., Reading the Privacy Policies You Encounter in a Year Would Take 76 Work Days, The Atlantic, March 1 st, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/reading-the-privacy-policies-you-encounter-in-a-year-would-take-76-work-days/253851/
[3] Fox News, 7,500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Souls, April 15, 2010, http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2010/04/15/online-shoppers-unknowingly-sold-souls.html
[4] MediaSmarts, Young Canadians in a Wired World, Phase III: Talking to Youth and Parents about Life Online, 2012, http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/publication-report/full/ycwwiii-youth-parents.pdf
[5] MediaSmarts, Young Canadians in a Wired World, Phase III: Life Online, 2014, http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/pdfs/publication-report/full/YCWWIII_Life_Online_FullReport_2.pdf

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When you sign up for a service on a website or use an application for the first time, do you read the privacy policy and terms of use thoroughly? Or, like most of us, do you click "I Agree" as fast as you can?

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More great resources and an overview of the topic from CSM

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Overview

This topic introduces students to the concept of online privacy and the potential implications of sharing private information with a range of people: friends, the public, app providers, and more. Sharing information about yourself can be a natural and healthy activity, and it can lead to positive connections and personal growth. However, it can also present safety risks, and students need to be aware of potentially harmful consequences such as identity theft and financial exploitation.

Our Instructional Approach

Balance of Benefits and Risks

On this topic, it is easy to default to scary rhetoric about the dangers of "Big Brother" and "stranger danger." However, a balanced approach looks at both the rewards and risks of sharing information online with others. Our lessons highlight some of the amazing opportunities that students have to interact, grow, and learn from each other. They also seek to prepare students to have a reasonable and cautious awareness of the serious risks associated with engaging in online activity, both from strangers and from third-party providers. Students will learn concrete strategies for safe, appropriate digital interactions so they can minimize the risks of online sharing -- and take advantage of the rewards.

Real-Life Scenarios

To help students see the importance of being safe and secure when they're online, our lessons include real-life scenarios where private information could potentially be shared, and where the benefits and risks are notable but not sensationalized. From encountering clickbait to setting up passwords to messaging with people online, the scenarios in our lessons provide an authentic context for grappling with the potential dangers that come with spending time online.
Go to lessons

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Privacy & Security | Common Sense Education

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Common Sense provides a comprehensive set of K-12 digital citizenship lessons. This page provides an overview and key considerations for teaching lessons in the topic Privacy & Security.

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Educator toolkit for teacher and student privacy

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Educator toolkit for teacher and student privacy

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Common Sense Media lessons on Digital Citizenship

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Common Sense Media lessons on Digital Citizenship

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Why is teaching online safety important? An intro video + the CSM lesson database

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Why Is Teaching Online Safety Important? | Common Sense Education

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Hear perspectives from a principal, a technology teacher, and a school counselor about online safety challenges their school has faced (such as students sharing private information) and why they believe teaching about online safety is important.