Hypocritical Apple is back with another billboard to criticize Google

During CES 2019, Apple had a banner saying “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone“. Apple was trying to project an image that it cares about user privacy unlike companies like Google. Now, Apple is back with another billboard, it says “We’re in the business of staying out of your” and this time it is in Toronto’s eastern waterfront. Apple specifically chose to have billboard at this location because of the presence of Alphabet Sidewalk Labs.

Sidewalk Labs is an Alphabet company, just like Google. Sidewalk Labs has published a three-volume Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) proposal on how to develop Toronto’s eastern waterfront. Instead of criticizing the plan and its details, Apple is trying to improve its image by criticizing Sidewalk Labs’ sister company Google. Sidewalk Labs has already made it clear that it does not share urban data, user data, or personal data with Google, and has its own separate business model. It is unfortunate that Apple is trying to target Sidewalk.

If Apple really cares about user privacy and not happy about Google’s privacy policy, it should be cancelling the search deal with Google. Apple gets nearly 12 billion dollars every year from Google to make Google the default search provider on Apple devices. In fact, a significant part of Apple’s services revenue growth is because of Google’s search deal. Apple basically allows Google to be default on its devices for dollars, but it will criticize Google publicly to boost its privacy image. Hypocrisy!

Image Credit: Matt Elliott