Apple describes Android as a “massive tracking device”

Apple has done a lot of digging into Android over the years, but an internal presentation that has now emerged sees the company declaring Android to be a “mega-tracking device”.

Coming out of Google’s ongoing antitrust trial, it’s an internal pitch for Apple He showed up (via the edge) where the company described the Android system as a “massive tracking device.”

The presentation in question was about the push within Apple to start a “privacy competition.” The slides, presented in January 2013, delve into how Apple’s competitors (primarily Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) approach issues of privacy and user data. The Privacy Timeline includes some events of the 2000s that made headlines regarding privacy, such as Google Street View cars recording private Wi-Fi networks, Instagram aiming to use user photos in its ads, and when Google’s privacy policy moved to Integrating user data across services. Apple has continued to compare how its products handle privacy differently from Google and others. We’ve included some slides below.

The presentation culminates in a full-page statement below, in which Apple says “Android is a huge tracking device.” The slideshow has been partially redacted and condensed, which takes away the context of this statement, but it’s certainly a bold way to talk about a competitor.

Of course, all mobile devices do a lot of tracking, whether Android or iOS.

However, it’s hard to argue that Apple hasn’t taken this sentiment from a decade ago and run with it. In iOS 14.5Apple has doubled down on privacy by introducing a permission system for ad tracking and the like, which has… Huge decreases in tracking On iPhone. Android still doesn’t have a similar feature, although the company has looked into it.

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