Apple’s new ad brings the focus back on privacy and here's why it’s important

Apple has always been big about privacy and it has been one of its main selling points when it goes up against the likes of Android. Now, the company has rolled out an advert to talk about privacy. The ad is one minute 34 seconds long and shows how Ellie goes to a record store and walks into a data auction where her personal information is being sold off - “It’s not creepy. It’s commerce.”

The ad shows all the data the phone can collect starting from emails to photos, contacts, recent purchases, location data, message contents, and the list goes on. The only solution to stop this all is to stop the apps from tracking you, and protecting your emails - features that an iPhone can offer.

The main focus of the ad is to show how well Apple and the iPhone can protect your privacy, while others, like the Android OS, cannot. And the company has chosen a rather simple, albeit slightly exaggerated, way to show you how far this intrusion can go and how one needs to stop it. Start caring about your data, and we can help you do it - that’s pretty much Apple’s point.

It’s not often that Apple makes an ad about its software. The last few ads we’ve seen were about the Apple Watch and the iPhone 13 Pro device’s stunning camera capabilities. This ad highlights Apple’s focus on user privacy with features that are baked into the operating system, and unlike other companies, it does not collect personal data and is not dependent on ads.  

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature is shown in the ad, this rolled out with iOS 14.5 and has been improved in iOS 15. This feature has developers requesting permission from users before they can track them across apps and websites. Meta (Facebook) had mentioned earlier this year that Apple’s ATT feature would cost them more than $10 billion.

And then there is the Mail Privacy protection feature on the Mail app too that limits the amount of data one can collect from a user when they open promotional emails and newsletters. This feature gives users the option to hide their IP address so that it cannot be linked to other online activity or be used to determine their location. Apple’s iCloud Plus service also has a slew of privacy features like Private Relay that helps keep browsing data private.

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