KineticAirbag

ericthehalfbee said:

boopthesnoot said:

Why mention that Google started using this data privacy technique first?  Why is it that everytime Apple innovates and implements new technology there's always  some stick in the mud that has to point that Google is already using it?

It's really very simple.

There are legions of haters/losers/idiots who always try to break down Apple discussions using a binary technique. They then apply this simple Yes/No to whatever topic is at hand so they can try to minimize what Apple is doing or make it appear others have already done it. Here are three examples (two well known and the third in this article):

- Fingerprint Scanner. Apple introduced it in the 5S. Immediately all the idiots start proclaiming that the Motorola Atrix had a fingerprint sensor before the iPhone 5S. And they would be correct, as they are just "stating the facts" as thewhitefalcon said above. But they are being deceitful. The facts are that the Atrix had a horrid fingerprint sensor that was not only unreliable, but had an astonishingly bad failure rate (if you owned the phone for more than 6 months there was a good chance the sensor had already died). Other phones (like Samsung) added fingerprint sensors, but their first generation versions were also terrible. If you looked at these from a Yes/No perspective, then you could say that the iPhone 5S was no different than other phones which also had fingerprint sensors. If you looked at the real "facts" you'd see the implementation as done by Apple makes their version superior.

- Data Collection. Google collects your data. Apple collects your data. Therefore Google and Apple are equal. This is one the Google fans like to trot out whenever someone pokes fun at all the data Google collects about you or talks about user privacy. It's sheer idiocy to think that the data collection done by Apple is anywhere near the scale of Google. Or that Apple monetizes your data to the same scale as Google (which makes some $50+ billion a year off targeted ads based on this data). Again, reducing something down to a simple Yes/No to try and make Apple appear the same as Google when it comes to collecting your data.

- Differential Privacy. If you look at articles on all the tech blogs, idiots everywhere were coming out of the woodwork with their usual "Apple wasn't the first to use this" or "Google already uses this". I especially like the last one, as it implies that Google uses this everywhere (instead of just in RAPPOR). Let's be clear here: Google DOES NOT use differential privacy in its core business, the one responsible for almost 90% of their revenues - targeted ads. There are several papers on this topic about using differential privacy with targeted ads, but at the time it doesn't seem possible to achieve the same level of granularity when targeting ads while also using differential privacy. And since 90% of Googles revenue comes from targeted ads, you can bet they won't be using any new technology that could affect their ability to make money off those ads. Which is why I predict it will be some time (if ever) before we see Google talk about differential privacy in the context of targeted ads.

So it's important to explain in the article what Google is doing with differential privacy not as a means to slight Apple or promote Google, but to take the winds out of the sails of the idiots who will, again, try to minimize what Apple has done here. That is, to dive into the deep end and use differential privcacy across all their services, insetad of using it like a research study on some minor aspect of your business (like everyone else).

boopthesnoot said:

Why mention that Google started using this data privacy technique first?  Why is it that everytime Apple innovates and implements new technology there's always  some stick in the mud that has to point that Google is already using it?