Apple has taken a potshot at the rest of the tech world by sticking a massive billboard right outside the venue of a trade show many of its competitors will be exhibiting at in Las Vegas this week.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a yearly trade show in Las Vegas in which high profile tech companies showcase their latest products and innovations to the media. However, Apple never makes an appearance at the show, preferring to make its announcements on home soil – so it’s especially interesting to see it getting involved in a more passive way. It’s the perfect place to make a statement to the world, especially after a tumultuous few days for Apple.
Apple never shows up at CES, so I can’t say I saw this coming. pic.twitter.com/8jjiBSEu7z
— Chris Velazco (@chrisvelazco) January 4, 2019
The advert references the infamous “what happens in Vegas” quote with its “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone” tagline. In the wake of various data collection scandals featuring Facebook and Google, and the fact that those companies (and, to a lesser extent, Amazon) have business models that rely on amassing data and targeting ads, Apple wants to make it clear that it has a very different approach to user data.
Apple’s business model is in selling premium products – it has no need for your data. As such, iOS has been designed to protect user data, and to do more of its “machine learning” on the device rather than in the cloud like its competitors.
The billboard encourages readers to investigate further at apple.com/privacy, which is a decent resource to better understand exactly what it is Apple does to protect its users. We’d also recommend checking it out if you haven’t already – privacy affects us all and having an understanding of how the various tech giants handle your data is more important than ever.