Recently, privacy day has been celebrated. For many this day may not mean much, especially in a society where many of the services we use regularly access our data. However, there are still companies that really care about privacy users, and Apple is one of them.
While making a number of enemies along the way, Apple has managed to introduce a number of privacy control enhancements into its products and services that are rarely particularly mainstream. For example, and unfortunately for companies like Facebook, not long ago began to force developers to make public the type of data they use in their apps in the App Store.
However, while it is one of the great advocates of privacy, Apple also commits certain “contradictions”. Most remarkable, using Google as the default search engine in their systems. Despite the appearance of alternatives dedicated to the preservation of user privacy, those in Cupertino continue to favor the Mountain View giant.
According to Jane Horvath, director of global privacy at Apple, it’s because Google is “the most popular search engine.” Additionally, he notes that it’s still possible to easily switch to Ecosia or DuckDuckGo. What they don’t comment on is that there is an agreement between google and apple whereby the second accepts to keep the first as the default search engine.
Thanks to this agreement, Google contributes to the services division of Apple several billion revenues that otherwise would simply not exist. This number is large enough to protect the agreement. At least until Apple has its own search engine, which could happen sooner rather than later.