As Apple Launches iPhone 14, Can It Be a Privacy Hero and an Ad Giant?

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Apple Inc. last week unveiled the iPhone 14 series in a 90-minute glitzy infomercial that was all about hardware. Though the company didn't talk about what it would do with people's personal data, it has long been a given that your information on an iPhone is kept private. Its messaging system is encrypted by default, its digital assistant Siri processes commands on the phone rather than on Apple servers, and Apple lets you block advertisers from tracking you.

But as the tech giant seeks to grow revenue from advertising, a business long powered by data collection and targeting, consumers may soon need more concrete reassurances that the company won't loosen its standards for how it handles personal information.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer, has called protecting privacy “the most essential battle of our time.” That stance on privacy has allowed the company to fashion itself as a hero among giants of surveillance capitalism like Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

Yet that also makes Apple's growing foray into advertising hard to reconcile with a commitment to walling off private information.

Apple likely has been forced by circumstance. The booming smartphone market has been slowing and Apple needs to make money in other ways besides selling iPhones(1). To that end, it is developing mixed-reality headsets, an autonomous car and is leaning more into services like Apple TV and Apple Music. It has also started growing its footprint in the ad business, a market normally associated with social media firms.

Apple currently shows display ads at the front of its App Store and on its News and Stocks apps, but now it is planning to expand those ads to other pages in the App Store, too(2). Its ad