Apple Is Vowing To Protect Your Data

"What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone." This is Apple's new motto, its new stated goal: protecting your personal data.

At a time when its main competitors are coming under heavy criticism for the use of the personal data they collect, the IT giant has just announced the launch of "Sign it with Apple".

So, instead of using your Facebook or Google credentials to access an application or site, this new feature will allow you to use your Apple account - provided you have one. It's sometimes hard for a user to apprehend how far companies can go in collecting their personal data. The challenge of protecting that data is becoming a bigger and bigger social issue.

Escaping the surveillance of the GAFAM

What difference does it make in practice? Apple shouts it out: it doesn't use your personal data, unlike Facebook or Google, for whom it is the heart of a profitable business.

Does this really make the Cupertino-based firm the new white horse of our private life? If so, it's a novelty - and the closing of a Pandora's box that it helped to open.

The App Store, data centralizer

The company and its App Store have been at the centre of the free circulation of our personal data. Created in 2008, the App Store has enabled people with iPhones, iPads or iPods to download every application imaginable - "There's an app for that", which is the platform's slogan.

While Apple is probably still the company that monetizes your personal data the least, the creation of the App Store will have enabled the millions of applications it was distributing to use and resell this data.

Some of them almost always ask you for your location, others ask for access to your camera, and yet another category requires the use and incorporation of your contacts: Apple and its Store have created a gigantic ecosystem dedicated to the collection, analysis and sale of personal data.

The risks in personal data storage

On the AppStore platform you can find any type of applications, not just social media or mailing apps, more and more people enjoy playing video games on their smartphones. But like any application, gaming involves storage of a great amount of data, especially with multi-connected accounts, like when you login with your Facebook or Google profile to save your progression or share some plays with your friends. No wonder why this sector has become a target for cyber attacks.

Some sectors tend to be more severe regarding the protection of your personal data. This is the case for the online gaming industries where it involves money transactions. Websites like VegasSlotsOnline, for example, aim to their user's security and select a list of the most safe, reliable and trusted casinos where credit card transactions uses the latest encryption technology, websites and software are certified by an expert team and also tested by respected auditors. All of this is essential to keep the user's safety and to protect them from cyberattacks. Although the establishment of GDPR (the general data protection regulation) means that work is being done to ensure personal data protection, it still falls on us to do what we can to remain out of sight of these kinds of risks.

Internet, an open dump for our personal data

"Today, everyone is worried about protecting their personal data," said Marc Rees, editor-in-chief of Next Impact. The data protection policy has become a marketing tool for all digital workers."

Apple, with the announcement of this "connect with Apple", puts its competitors in front of a public challenge. Caught up in almost daily controversy, Mark Zuckerberg, who in 2010 swore that privacy was no longer a social norm, seems to have made a 180-degree turn and promises a major change for his platform in the coming months. Data protection has become a selling point. Will Apple sell more iPhones with these new ads? They are bound to attract a more conscious consumer, not only the younger generation but with these announcements they are spanning their reach across different age groups. From a marketing perspective it's certainly a smart move but now it's up to them to put the theory to work and become one of the most trusted tech giants out there. And trust means keeping clients and assuring that they bring new clients for your new generation of products.